Loonakids: Coyote Crowning
by BatmanLoonaticsFan96
Summary: When the queen of Anasala calls and tells the team that Anasala is looking for a new heir to the throne, Kelly and Ryan decide to go...and get into all kinds of trouble. Sequel to "Unhappy Birthday"
1. Chapter 1

Loonakids: Coyote Crowning

OK, this one will have plenty references to Twitches and Halloweentown. Keep an eye out!

Chapter 1

Around late-December, a few days after Christmas, Sarah Coyote had gone into a cooking spree again. That afternoon, she decided to take a break and laid her last recipe on the table. "OK, Slam. I got it all ready for you."

Slam Tasmanian said something, excitedly, and ate everything Sarah had baked.

"Well, back to the cutting board," said Sarah, "Somebody wanna clean this up?"

"Oh, I'll do it," Kelly, her older sister, said, coming up and getting out her wand.

"Oh, wait!" Tech, the girls' father, said. He quickly grabbed one of the chairs by the table and hid behind it. "OK, go ahead."

"Hey!" Kelly defended herself, "I'm not that bad!" Everyone looked at her. "OK, I'm that bad. But I've been working on it."

"Oh, boy," said Wendy, Kelly and Sarah's aunt.

Kelly glared at her aunt and waved her wand. Every dirty dish on the table flew over to the sink and washed itself.

"Wow," said Daniella, Wendy's triplet sister, "You really have been working on this."

Tech got up from behind the chair. "I'll say."

Kelly smiled, gratefully. She looked back at the dishes and waved her wand again to put them up…making them fly all over the place. Tech finally ducked a knife and it lodged in the wall. After it was over, Kelly sighed. "Oops." Everyone looked at her again. She forced a nervous smile. "Sorry about that, guys. I don't know why, but that actually happens a lot."

"You don't say," said Ryan, Kelly and Sarah's eldest brother.

"Like it never happens to you," Kelly scoffed.

Sophie, Tech's wife and the coyote kids' mother, sighed. "My kids are not doing well with the magic thing."

"Oh, and ours are going so well," Wendy said, sarcastically.

Daniella then heard a beeping sound coming from the conference room. "Call on the videophone. I'll get it."

"Oh, no," said Sophie, "We're coming with you." Anything could happen to any of them at any time, so they weren't gonna risk it. Everyone followed Daniella into the conference room as she answered the call, but they stayed far enough away for Daniella to have some privacy if the call was especially for her.

Daniella hit a couple buttons and a youngish woman appeared on the monitor. She had red hair and _deep_ light blue eyes. She wore a long silk burgundy gown that reached the grass of the garden she was standing in and a garland in her hair.

Daniella smiled. "Queen Arielle."

"Who?" Duck (Wendy's husband) asked Wendy.

"The queen of Anasala," Wendy explained.

"Anasala's got a queen?" Tech asked.

"Well, the government of our world is a long, complicated system, but yeah."

"It's good to see you again," said Arielle, "It's been a long time since your parents died."

"I know," said Daniella, "Still miss 'em terribly."

"I can understand. But it's about time that I stepped down so we need a new heir to the throne and were wondering if you and your sisters would like to share the title."

Daniella smiled and looked at her sisters. Sophie was smiling and Wendy was nodding frantically. Daniella looked back at Arielle. "OK!"

"Great. So you can catch the next portal and declare your virginity and we'll just call you the queens."

"That's sounds—what?"

"Did she just say 'virginity'?" asked Wendy, "Tell me she didn't say 'virginity'!"

Arielle stopped smiling. "Well, only an untampered Witch can claim the throne. Aren't you 3 still all celibate?" **(record needle scratches)**

Daniella slowly turned back to the others. "Oh no."

Arielle sighed. "You're married, aren't you?"

Daniella turned back to her. "Well, we left because of true love. We married with the next year and Sophie had 7 kids and Wendy had 2 and I had one and I'm pregnant now. I mean, it's been 170 years. Couldn't you have expected that?"

"170?" Duck asked, "It's only been 17."

"In this world's time, yes," said Wendy, "But in Anasala, it's been 17 _decades_. A day here is a week there, a week is a month, and so on."

"Wait, so 36 years would be 36 decades," Duck reasoned, "i.e., 360 years?"

"Exactly," Wendy said. She then realized that she'd given off their real ages. "Oops."

"You're 360 years old?" Tech cried.

"A topic for another time," Sophie quickly intercepted, "Right now we've got this Anasalan throne situation to deal with."

"Well," Arielle said, "you're the only ones qualified and you can't claim the throne now that you're married and raising children."

"Wait, what about the children?" Kelly suggested, "Would they technically be qualified?"

"If they're unmarried virgins, then yes," Arielle explained.

Kelly stepped forward. "Then allow me to introduce myself: Kelly Coyote, newly full-powered Witch who's been single her whole life."

"And Ryan Coyote," Ryan said, stepping up, "her single brother."

Kelly looked at him. "What?"

"Hey, I'm not leaving you alone in an unfamiliar dimension."

Arielle smiled. "Well, you fit the qualifications, you've come of age…if you're willing to leave for an Anasalan week for the coronation then we're set."

"So we've got it worked out," said Kelly, "We can pack our bags and zap over there by sundown. Uh…sundown here, which will probably be a day or 2 over there…"

Arielle smiled again. "No problem. See you then." She left.

"You're leaving?" Sarah asked, hurriedly rushing to her brother and sister's sides.

"Relax, Sare," said Kelly, "You can handle yourself. Ryan and I can really learn how to use our magic—and do it without hurting anybody—and you guys can keep watch while we're gone. It'll just be a day here. It's not like anything's gonna happen. Oh, I hope I didn't just jinx it."

Sarah smiled. "Don't worry. I guess we can take care of it."

"Knew I could count on you," said Kelly, "Better go pack. Oh, wait! I can zap it!"

"NO!" everyone else shouted.

"Save the magic for the trip," said Ryan.

Within the hour, the 2 coyote kids were set to leave. Kelly and Ryan walked down the stairs to the lobby of the tower. Kelly, wearing some sunglasses (since Daniella had informed her that it was deep in the summer there, another reason to get away from the gloomy Acmetropolis winter), was holding her wand and her main suitcase…and Ryan was carrying everything else.

"OK, forget what I said about saving your magic," said Ryan, "Can't you make these bags glow legs or something?"

"OK." Kelly pushed her last bag into his gut.

"Not what I meant."

Rev Runner, Daniella's husband, zoomed down the stairs and to the 2 coyotes. "Wow-I-can't-believe-you're-actually-leaving-and-back-to-your-mom's-old-home-dimension-I-mean-it-seems-like-yesterday-we-were-changing-your-diapers-of-course-it-couldn't-have-been-yesterday-because-yesterday-was-a-month-after-you-turned-15-and—"

Kelly took back her bag and shoved it into Rev's gut. "Uncle Rev, I've wanted to this for 10 years: shut up!"

"OK."

Daniella ran up to Kelly and Ryan as the rest of the group ran down the stairs. She handed Kelly a book, seeing that Ryan couldn't hold anymore weight. "OK, this is a manual of everything you need to know to survive in Anasala. It doesn't have any of the fundamentals of magic, of course, but it does have all the laws, histories, celebration instructions, traditions-"

"Aunt Danni?" Kelly stopped her.

"Huh?"

"You have spending too much time with your husband."

Sophie came up and hugged her kids, hugging Ryan so hard that he dropped all the bags. "Good luck out there, you 2. And tell Arielle I want my bracelet back."

Kelly nodded. "Will do." She looked at Wendy.

"It's a long story, don't ask," Wendy said. She hugged the kids.

"We'll only be gone for a day in our time," Kelly said.

"I don't care, we'll miss you."

"Oh!" Daniella realized, "And if you need us and haven't learned any communication spells, be sure to call us on our headphones."

"You mean cell phones," Ryan corrected.

Daniella pulled out 2 shrunken head dolls. "Headphones." She giggled as Duck and Jack (Wendy and Duck's son) jumped back at the sight of them. "They're like cell phones for Witches." She handed one to Ryan. She turned away and whispered into her head phone: "They work just like magic."

The headphone echoed this. Ryan would've jumped, but he was a little upset about everyone having him carry everything.

"OK, I think that's everything," said Daniella as Tech said goodbye to his 2 eldest, "I better open the portal-"

"Oh, can I do it?" Kelly asked.

Daniella looked at her. "No." Kelly threw her hands up. Daniella did a quick spell and opened the portal. Kelly and Ryan said their final goodbyes and left.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Kelly and Ryan appeared in a forest just outside of an Anasalan village.

Kelly looked around in awe. "Wow. The sky is blue, Rye!"

"No way," Ryan said. He then looked up to see the sun shining, partially blocked by misty clouds, in a beautiful light blue sky. "Way."

Kelly looked around some more. The trees were all pine, oak, willow, and some magic forms that she'd never seen before. There were birds and squirrels and hedgehogs and groundhogs and all forms of magic creatures. Kelly came out of the forest to see a rather large, crystal clear lake just by the village. "Wow."

"You said that already," Ryan said.

"I know, but…after growing up in a city like Acmetropolis…this is amazing." Kelly took out the manual and removed a map from it. She put the manual back and unfolded the map, which was about 1/5000th scale if the actual realm, a map that requiring a lot of magic-weaving to design, let alone print out. "OK…" She looked around the map and then saw it: a forest by a lakeside village. "Alright, we're here at Crystal Lake and Lake-Town, which is just a couple miles away from the castle. So if the portal was designating to open here, than the guys at the castle, knowing we're unfamiliar to this dimension and our powers, would've sent something to take us over there. So all we have to do is wait for them to show up." She re-folded the map and put it her pack. "I wonder who or what they're sending. Maybe we'll get to fly a dragon!"

_HONK! HONK! _Up pulled a taxi.

"Or maybe they'll send a cab," said Ryan.

Kelly suspected something was going on. "OK, that it so city and mortal. There's no way there's nothing magic about it. She walked over there and the window rolled down to reveal the driver.

"Hey there, kids!" said the skeleton in the front seat, "You must be Kelly and Ryan. Boy, was the queen excited to meet you 2, finally see old Sophie's kids. Your mom and I go way back."

"You didn't date, did you?" asked Ryan.

"Oh, no! I just drove her to school. Of course, back then I was all skin and bones…except for the skin!" He laughed. **(drumbeat)** "Allow me to introduce myself. Name's Bobby."

Kelly nodded. "OK." She got in the back of the car and Ryan followed. The luggage instantly zapped itself into the trunk. Kelly looked at her brother. "I could learn to like it here!"

Bobby then started to drive off. "Hey! What does a skeleton have for dinner? Prime rib!" **(drumbeat)** "And what does he say before he eats it? Bone apetite!" **(drumbeat)**

"I hope you're a better driver than you are a comedian," Ryan said.

_Back at HQ…_

Sophie sat down on the couch. "I guess it's kind of a good thing they're gone for the day."

Wendy sat down next to her sister. "That's a good way to look at it. I mean, it's not like they're gonna become queen and king before the week is out, forget to invite us to the coronation, get caught up in the power, and decide to zap the rest of their stuff there and stay there forever and never come back to see us. Just put that thought out of your head."

"It wasn't in my head until now!"

"Oops."

Sophie quickly took the headphone from Daniella. "Kelly! Ryan! What's going on? Please tell me you're OK!"

_Back in Anasala…_

Kelly groaned when she heard her mother's message. "Relax, Mom. We're perfectly fine. We're headed to the castle right now."

"You're not riding a dragon, are you?"

"Unfortunately, no. We're having to take the skelo-cab."

"Old Bobby's boring you with his jokes?"

"Exactly."

"Hey!" Bobby intercepted, "I got plenty of cool jokes! How about this one: this street is really marrow!" **(drumbeat)**

"OK, where is that coming from?" Ryan started looking around the cab for some sort of speaker that could be letting off the drumbeats.

"I wondered that all through high school, believe me," Sophie added.

Daniella snatched the headphone. "Just be careful while you're there! And if you need anything, be sure to call us or consult the manual I gave you, and don't hurt anyone with your magic-"

"Aunt Danni!" Kelly stopped her, "I repeat: spending too much time with Rev!"

Daniella sighed. "OK, fine. Just…good luck. And we'll watch things while you're gone."

Sophie grabbed the phone back. "And remember, tell Arielle…"

"That you want your bracelet back, we got it," said Kelly, "Do I wanna know what that means?"

"I repeat: I wouldn't ask!" Wendy intercepted, "Bye!" She hung up.

"Hey! I wasn't done!" Sophie said.

"So, honey, they'll be OK. They have their full powers, they can call us if they need us, they'll have the castle guards taking care of them. They're not kids anymore, So." Wendy walked off with that.

Tech walked up. "She's right. And they're not gonna forget us!" He glared at Wendy (who immediately mouthed "Sorry!") "I mean, they're already superheroes in our place, we're gonna have to let 'em go sometime."

Sophie then burst into tears.

"Or not! We can hold on tight! As tight as possible!"

"We're losing our babies!" Sophie cried.

"Hey, Gabby, TJ, and Polly are still in diapers," Ace pointed out.

Sophie just grabbed Tech and sobbed louder. Tech tried to calm her down, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, Kelly and Ryan finally arrived at the castle.

"Welcome the castillo de Anasala," Bobby said, "And that is Spanish for Castle de Anasala." **(drumbeat) **"Hey! That was not a bone joke! Granted, it was a joke, but…" Bobby stopped.

Kelly quickly got out as quickly as possible. "Thanks, Bobby!" She rushed for the trunk and started getting out the luggage as Ryan got out of the cab.

"Let me take care of this," Ryan said as soon as Kelly started having trouble. He tugged on the suitcase…but it was still stuck. "Huh." Suddenly, the suitcase and pushed themselves out, hitting him in the head and knocking him to the ground. The trunk closed itself and the cab drove off.

Kelly helped Ryan up. "Are you OK, Rye?"

"Can I have some bacon with my waffles?"

Kelly zapped the bags into the air and helped her brother walk off, their luggage following them every step of the way.

Finally, the 2 walked through the castle doors and into a huge building.

"Whoa," both of them said.

There were tapestries over the windows, the floors were so shiny you could see your reflection clearly in them, and the roof/ceiling was over 100 feet up and not at all supporting the dozens floating candles and torches or the crystal chandelier in the middle of the room. As soon as their luggage was in the lobby with the 2 teen coyotes, the doors closed by themselves.

"I thought I heard someone coming in." Queen Arielle then came down the steps and noticed Kelly and Ryan. "Well, hello." She walked over to them. She seemed to be only a few years older than them—and was the appropriate height for such an age—but she was obviously very mature. "You must be Kelly and Ryan. It's an honor to meet Sophie's children."

"Well, we're not her only children, I may remind you," Kelly pointed out, "We're just the oldest. As Aunt Danni said over the videophone, Mom has 7 kids."

"I'm surprised our little triplets bred so fast," Arielle said, "Last time I saw them was at their parents' funeral service and they seemed just 21 then."

"Because technically, they were," Ryan said, picking up his bags, "They never told any of us that they were centuries old."

"Well, Witches age as mortals do, just at a different pace. I suppose I should be showing you around."

"Uh, how big is this castle exactly?" asked Ryan.

Arielle hesitated. "20 acres." Both coyotes stared at her, wide-eyed. "Not my design. It is easy for someone to get lost in this place, but that would mainly happen for mortals. A Witch/Warlock would be able to channel their senses and feel their way out. Oh, and don't bother carrying your bags." She snapped her fingers and the bags and lifted into the air again. "I'll show them to your room." She zapped them up the banister and down the upstairs hall. "Now, I guess you could learn the castle as you go along, but as to your powers-"

"Queen Arielle!" 2 girls who looked almost exactly alike (bright green eyes, curly brown hair) came in.

"We heard someone come in," said one of the girls, "Have the triplets arrived?"

"Karen," said Arielle, "I thought I informed you all that the triplets were no longer celibate or virgins. But Sophie's eldest daughter and son have come along, willing to claim the throne." Kelly and Ryan waved.

"OK, are they here yet?"

Both Kelly and Ryan stopped waving. "Yeah."

"Good! Where are they?"

The other girl looked at her. "I think that's them."

"Correct," said Arielle, "Kelly and Ryan."

Karen looked back and forth between Arielle, Kelly, and Ryan until finally pulling Arielle and the other girl off into a corner. "I thought you said only an untampered Witch can claim the throne."

"Because it's true," said Arielle, "I agreed to step down so that I can settle down."

"Are you aware that those 2 are half-bloods?" Karen commented, "They're not fit to rule this kingdom!"

Arielle glared at her. "For such unfair judgment, I could have you fired and thrown from the castle." She crossed her arms at her. "These 2 have magic and therefore considered Witches and Warlocks, qualified through pureness of youth and virginity to take the throne regardless of their bloodline. Should I hear you once more complain of these 2 before I step down, unless it be that they have done true wrong, than you _will_ be thrown out of the castle, or even this dimension should _you_ have wronged _them_. Do you understand me?"

Karen sighed. "Yes, your majesty."

Arielle smiled. She went back over to Kelly and Ryan. "This is Karen and Carmen, our royal twins. They'll be teaching you your magic until you take the throne."

"So we need to go over a few things right now," Carmen said, walking over to them, "How long have you been of age?"

"If you mean 15, then 1 month and a couple days," Kelly answered.

Carmen took note of this. "OK, and how long have you had your full power?"

"2 months in a few days."

Carmen's eyes widened. "You're premature?"

"Is that a problem?"

"Well, it shouldn't be, but…have you had any problems with your magic at all?"

"Not really," Ryan said.

"Once I was unable to unlock a door," Kelly explained, "but it was enchanted by a Gypsy, so I'm pretty certain that one doesn't count."

"OK, good," said Carmen, "We can work with this."

Arielle smiled. "Well, why don't you 2 take over these 2 and I'll be back in my quarters." She walked back up the stairs.

"Oh, wait!" Kelly suddenly said. Arielle stopped and looked at her. "Mom told me to tell you that she wants her bracelet back."

Arielle sighed. "Some people never let things go." She walked up the stairs.

"OK, come on," said Karen, starting to drag off Kelly.

"Where are we going?" Kelly asked, following as Carmen started to lead Ryan off with them.

"Until you take the throne, you're officially a princess," Karen explained, letting go of Kelly's arm for a second, "So-"

"We're leaning towards fashion here, aren't we?" Kelly asked, smoothing out her denim mini-skirt.

"Pretty much."

"In that case, I'll stay here," Ryan said. He turned to Carmen. "Well, hello."

Kelly grabbed her brother. "This is our big chance to really learn how to use our magic. Don't blow it with your lame flirting 'skills'!"

Ryan growled. "I'll just go off to our room." He stopped halfway up the stairs. "Where's our room?"

Karen sighed. "It's down the right hall, 3rd door on your left."

"Got it," Ryan said, walking off.

"Now, about this princess thing…" Kelly started.

"Come on," Karen said, dragging her off again and Carmen following.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Kelly straightened out the long silk gown she now had on. It looked a lot like Queen Arielle's, but it just reached to her ankles and not the floor. "Now this is what I'm talking about."

Karen forced a smile. "Yes, very…stunning." She walked off.

Carmen picked up a silver tiara a few amethysts encrusted in it. "Finishing touch?"

"Oh, please!" Kelly said, taking it and putting it on. She took one last look in the mirror. "Wow."

"OK, I have some matters to deal with, mainly my sister," Carmen said, "I'll meet you and Ryan back here in, say…10 minutes, and we can go over some magic stuff, maybe tour the castle." She left.

"I'll wait here!" Kelly called. She then thought of something. She looked at the vase on the table by the mirror. She held out her hands and lifted it with her powers. She slowly moved it across the room…and it suddenly flew from her grip.

Ryan showed up and caught it just in time. "You might be careful with your magic while we're here." He put the vase back on the table. "Don't wanna get thrown out before…" He stopped when he noticed Kelly's new outfit. "Wow."

"That's what I said." Kelly looked in the mirror again and sighed. "By the way, Karen and Carmen are meeting us back here in 10 minutes to go over some magic stuff and tour the castle."

"Great." Ryan pulled out the headphone. "Gives me just enough time to check up on Mom and Dad."

"They just called 10 minutes ago," said Kelly.

"And then 20 seconds ago they beeped me," Ryan said, walking away.

_10 minutes later…_

Kelly's head and torso stuck out of the wall and into the hall. "A little help?"

Karen and Carmen then came up.

"Kelly!" Carmen said, "You were supposed to wait for us!"

"I got bored," Kelly whined.

"Well, I wish you'd started with something a little simpler," Carmen said.

"What's more simple than wall-walking?" Karen demanded, contemptibly.

Carmen thought about that. "Well, nothing really—"

"Thank you for the confidence boost!" Kelly said, "For some reason, my powers work fine but I can't cast the spells correctly without messing up somehow."

"Oh! I wish you told me this earlier," said Carmen, "It probably has something to do with your prematurity. Didn't your mom and aunts teach you about this stuff back in Acmetropolis?"

"Let's go over this later," said Kelly, "GET ME OUT OF THIS WALL NOW!"

"OK, OK!" said Carmen, pulling Karen back through the wall and into the room where Kelly's legs still were, "Get that Big Book of Spells."

Karen grabbed a huge leather-backed book with gold writing on the front. "_Veneficus of Totus Res_." (Magic of All Things) She plopped it on Kelly's tail, using it as a table.

Kelly took in a gasp of breath. "Hey!" she hissed.

"Sorry!" Carmen called. She and Karen started leafing through the pages of the book.

Kelly sighed. She then noticed a couple of the castle attendants walking down the hall. "Uh…hi! Princess Kelly! First day. Defeated the Daughters of the Dark! Nice weather we're having, huh?" They left. She turned back to the wall. "Hurry up!"

"This doesn't happen that often, you know!" Karen snapped.

"Well, it's not that often that the Princess is a premature half-born who keeps messing up spells," said Carmen.

"Finally, we agree on something!"

"OK, fine! We'll do this manually." Carmen took in a deep breath…and then kicked Kelly's tail, launching her forward and onto the hall floor.

Karen and Carmen came back into the hall.

Ryan then came back. "What'd I miss?"

All 3 girls looked at him.

"What?"

_5 minutes later…_

Karen and Carmen led Kelly and Ryan through the halls of the castle.

"Alright, we can skip the foyer since you already saw that on the way in," said Carmen, "So let's start moving on…uh…kitchen!" She dragged them off.

A Witch cook with bright blue-green eyes and strawberry blonde hair was in the kitchen, making dinner. While she chopped away at an onion, a ladle stirred itself in a giant soup pot.

Carmen walked in, followed by Karen, Ryan, and Kelly. "Hey, Haven."

Haven turned to look at her. When she saw who it was, she let go of the knife, which continued chopping away of its own accord. "Hi, girls."

"One cook for the whole kitchen?" asked Kelly, remembering how big the castle was and thinking about how many people must be there to feed.

"It's easy with magic," Haven explained, zapping some spices into the soup pot, "All about emotional control."

"Remember that," Carmen noted to Kelly. She turned back to Haven. "This is Kelly and Ryan Coyote, our new princess and prince."

"You'll never believe this," Karen said, "but Haven is Arielle's baby sister."

Kelly's eyes widened at that statement. She then started to look Haven up and down and started to see a slight resemblance, like with Daniella and Wendy. Different hair and different eyes but mainly similar otherwise (Sophie, of course, couldn't fall under that rule with the whole coyote thing going on). "Really?"

"Yeah, I get that reaction a lot," said Haven, "There was just 3 of us—the standard number of kids in a magic family—Arielle, our brother Bradley, and me. When Arielle was about 16, Bradley was 14, and I was 12, Arielle pretty much fell in love with this guy, and Brad started going after this girl. But I was staying back because I was certain I would be getting claim to the throne. Then they selected Arielle over me and she and her guy have been fiancées ever since, Brad getting married and me unable to find anyone. But I've let it go."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Ryan, looking over her shoulder at the knife that was still chopping away.

Haven turned to see that the knife was going faster. "Whoa!" She dropped the spell and accidentally sent the knife flying at Ryan, who ducked just in time and let the knife implant itself in the wall. "Oops?"

"Emotional control, huh?" asked Kelly. Haven forced out a nervous smile.

"We better move on before Haven here literally cooks up a storm," said Carmen, leaving. Karen instantly followed.

Kelly followed closely behind them, Ryan just inches behind her. "I'm thinking there's more to that story than they're telling us," Kelly whispered to her little brother.

Karen heard that and faced them. "There's hundreds of secrets lying in the walls of this castle than you will ever find out about," she said, ominously. [Creepy music plays in background.] Then she brightened up. "OK, let's keep going." She and Carmen continued to lead them down the hall.

Kelly and Ryan looked at each other and followed them.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A young lady was in a chamber, holding up a sheer pink fabric.

A guy about her age looked at it. "No."

She zapped it and it turned into a blue velvet.

"Maybe."

She zapped it and it turned into sparkly, floral lavender flannel.

He tilted his head a little. "Hold it up a little higher."

She twitched her arm up a little.

"Higher."

She moved her arm up higher.

"No, I'm sorry lower."

She moved her arm back.

"That's good."

"That's where I started!"

"Are we interrupting something?" asked Carmen as she came in with Karen and Kelly and Ryan.

"Oh, no, you're perfectly fine," said the girl, "In fact, we could use a third opinion on this before the princess gets here."

"Uh, this is the princess," said Carmen as Kelly raised her hand.

The girl threw the fabric out the window. "What dress? I mean…hi."

"Please excuse my wife, she's a bit on edge when it comes to her work," said the young man.

"I'm very serious about this," said the girl, "I took a course on fashion magic in Witch U and took it to heart. I loved doing this!"

"There's a Witch University?" asked Ryan.

"Every Witch and Warlock goes there," said Carmen, "But that's for another time. Allow me to introduce you to Brad and Shaya, your steward and lady-in-waiting. They've been married a _long time_."

"They look 21," Ryan commented.

"Everyone here looks 21," everyone else said.

"Point taken."

"My comment," said Kelly, "is that Brad here has the same name as Arielle and Haven's brother."

"I _am_ Arielle and Haven's brother!" Brad corrected.

Kelly's eyes widened [again] as she looked him up and down for the slight resemblance. She started seeing it. He had dark hair and bluish-brown eyes, but looked at lot like his sisters otherwise (except, of course, for the difference in gender).

Kelly then looked at Shaya, Brad's wife. Haven had said he'd fallen in love with a girl and married her. This girl was beautiful. She was well-aged (like all Witches) and didn't appear to weigh more than 120 pounds. Her height was fairly common and her skin was fairly dark, but her eyes were the main attraction, being extremely bright brown. Her shaggy brown hair, though, was also stunning. Her hair itself was mainly down, but there were a dozen miniature braids, held together by beads, in the untangled-yet-messy bundle.

"Wow," was all she had to say.

"We get that a lot," said Brad and Shaya at the same time.

"Do you say the same thing at the same time a lot?" asked Ryan.

"Oddly enough, no," said Shaya.

"Well, we better keep going with the tour," said Carmen, "A lot to see." She pulled Karen, Kelly, and Ryan out.

Shaya called back the fabric. "Alright, we're doing this right now."

"Are you sure I can't go with them?"

"Positive!"

Brad groaned. He should've married that cook's daughter instead of the seamstress.

Karen led the 2 coyotes and her sister down the hall. "Alright, bedroom, bedroom, bathroom, bedroom…"

"CAW!" A black-feathered bird swooped down on them. They all ducked just in time as it came back and flew into the rafters. "Hey, Karen! Carmen! How you doing? That the princess? She's pretty!"

"Is that bird talking?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah," said Karen and Carmen.

"You'd think I'd be used to this kind of thing by now."

"Actually, he's not really a crow," explained Carmen, "His name's Mars."

"Like the planet or the god of war?" asked Kelly.

"Both, actually. He tried to wage a war between worlds, ours and yours. He was caught before he could and the Witches' Council cast a spell on him to turn him into a crow for 750 years to punish him."

"So there's no prison in this world?" asked Ryan.

"Nope," Karen answered, "We use our magic powers to banish the bad guys in 3 ways: locked in the No-Man's-Lands of your world, stripped of magic forever, or turned into a random animal."

"Mark my words, KC, I'll get back to normal and get rid of you all!" With that said, Mars chuckled evilly and then started coughing. "Feather."

Karen rolled her eyes and walked off.

Carmen glared at Mars. "If you do anything against us now, your punishment will be extended. You don't have magic in your animal state, anyway, I might add. And we all know what's going to be the actual case after the next 700 years." She walked off.

Kelly hurried after her, Ryan following behind. "What's gonna be the case in 700 years?"

Carmen stopped walking and looked at her, Karen doing the same. "You're a psychic and you don't already know?"

"I don't know how my visions work."

"Well…"

"Car!" Karen snapped.

Carmen looked at her twin sister, who gave her a look, then turned back to Kelly and Ryan. "All I can _tell you_ now is that something's going to happen in less than a century that will change everything for all of us. And Mars' punishment doesn't wear off for another 600-something years afterwards. But…"

"'But'?" Ryan asked.

Carmen smiled. "We can show you the people who gave us the message from the future…" She ran off.

Karen stared after her, openmouthed in angered shock. "Carmen!" She ran off after her.

Kelly and Ryan looked at each other and then quickly followed.

In a dark room lit by candles emanating a radiant blue light, there sat 4 Witches and a single Warlock. They were collected around a fire in the center of a circle of books. They continued chanting until the fire turned blue as well, joining the lights of the room, and then went out completely, lighting up one of the pieces of paper and throwing it at one of the Witches.

The Witch took the paper and read it. "OK, problem resolved. We're having pizza tonight."

"Yay!" cried one of the Witches, taking down the hood on her cloak to reveal her fire red hair and electric blue eyes.

The Warlock took down his hood to reveal his dark hair and teddy-bear-brown eyes. "Joy, calm down!"

"I can't help it, Eric, it's my namesake!"

The Witch who'd grabbed the paper took down her hood to reveal her honey-colored hair and eyes. "You 2 are pathetic."

"Stay out of it, Amanda!"

Amanda threw her hands in the air and tossed the paper aside.

About that time, Karen and Carmen and Kelly and Ryan all came in.

Another Witch took down her hood to look at them, this one a redhead as well but with yellow-tinted green eyes, and ran over to them. "Oh, good! Karen, Carmen, you've gotta get me away from these guys! When they're not boring me to tears, they're annoying me to a point where I think my head's gonna explode!"

"Can we get that pizza now?" asked Eric, "I'm hungry!" The Witch zapped a tray of pizza onto the spot where the fire had been and the other 4 all immediately dived for it.

"You see?" she asked, calling forth one of the slices.

"Saffron, cool it!" Karen said, "We just came by the introduce you guys to the prince and princess."

"OK, where are they?" asked Saffron, taking a bite from the pizza.

"Right here," said Carmen.

The last Witch started choking. Amanda elbowed her and she was fine. "What?" She pulled down her hood to reveal her long brunette hair with bangs almost covering her whitish-red eyes. "I thought you said the triplets were going to take the throne."

"They were, Penelope," said Carmen, "But they all married. So Sophie's 2 eldest children decided to take the throne in their places."

"Oh," said Penelope. She forced a small smile and gave a thumbs-up. "Good." She turned her back to them and her expression changed to one of lethal terror as she returned to eating her pizza.

"So who's who here?" asked Kelly.

"Kelly, Ryan," said Carmen, "this is Joy, Eric, Penelope, Saffron, and Amanda, the Coven."

"The Coven…" Ryan thought out loud, "Oh! Aunt Danni told us about this! The group of Witches that keep watch over the realm, keeping the balance of good and evil in magic?"

"Correct," said Karen, starting to walk towards the group of 5, "and this generation is special because of one very powerful Seer." She gestured to Joy.

"Yeah, don't remind us," said Eric.

"She's a Seer?" asked Kelly.

"Yeah," Karen answered, "like you, except…different."

"Uh, I'm a Psychic and a Whisperer, my dad's the Seer."

"Oh!" Joy caught on, "No, not 'undead' Seer, 'danger' Seer. Vision stuff."

"She's the one who catches us up on the prophecy stuff around here," said Karen.

Joy nodded. "You didn't tell them about my last outburst in the plaza, did you?"

"No, only the ones that were there can know exactly what you said," said Carmen, "We made sure not to tell them what you predicted. But since you and Kelly have some stuff in common, we figured you'd wanna meet. Your powers joined together could help a lot in a grave situation."

"Well, is that everybody, then?" asked Ryan.

"It's a huge castle, Ryan," said Carmen, "You could be here a year and wander around every night and not meet everyone."

Kelly smiled at that thought. She'd never really had a chance to be connected to the magic world, let alone live a big place that was actually filled with people (the tower had only ever held her family and Zadavia).

"Oh, well," said Karen, "We better keep going." She pulled them out.

"Do we really bore and annoy you that much?" Amanda asked Saffron.

"Well…"

The twins and Kelly and Ryan were now walking up a staircase in the East Tower (yes, there were 4 towers in the castle), which was filled with staircases.

"And you might want to be careful with the staircases," Carmen warned the 2 coyotes, "They tend to change."

"What?" Ryan asked. Before either twin could answer him, all 4 of them felt movement beneath their feet and grabbed the banisters. The staircase was moving!

When it finally settled, Karen sighed. "Told you. Come on." She and Carmen continued walking.

Kelly and Ryan looked at each other again. It was gonna be weird here, but they could get used to it.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

2 hours later, they'd gone through about a third of the castle. Kelly and Ryan had to take a break to check up on their parents (for whom it'd only been a while under a half hour).

Kelly took the headphone and fell onto her bed.

Daniella picked up the phone and laid it on the table. "What's going on?"

"Not much," Kelly said, resting her head on the pillow as Ryan sat on his bed, "Did you know Arielle had a brother and sister?"

"Yep. Really big story there."

Wendy came up. "What about the Coven? Tell me Penelope's not still there."

Kelly thought about that. "Uh…no?"

"Liar!" Wendy cried, "She is, isn't she?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Did something happen with you 2?"

"It's a long story," said Daniella, "So who've they got heading the magic otherwise?"

"Royal twins, Karen and Carmen."

"Karen and Carmen?" Daniella scoffed. "Should've known."

Kelly snapped up. "What? They're the good guys, right?"

"The best," said Daniella, "Of course, Karen always was a Wendy."

"Hey!" Wendy snapped, "I'm not that bad!" She thought about that. "OK, maybe a little. But she always had a thing about Halflings and I'm fine!"

"Because you married a mortal!" Daniella corrected.

"So did you, Ms. Pregnant!"

"Hey!"

"Well, think about it: Karen never did like us."

"Which is why Carmen's holding her in check. Twins!"

"Hang on, I don't—"

"Uh, hello?" Kelly piped in, "Still here!"

"Yeah," said Ryan, "And that sounds kind of like an 'after-we-go-to-bed' conversation."

"Right," said Daniella, "Sorry."

Sophie rolled her eyes and came up. "So, anything really bad going on?"

"No, not really."

"Well, call us if there is."

"OK-love-you-bye!"

"Wait! I gotta warn you—" Sophie started. But before she could, the phone clicked off.

"Warn them about what?" Tech asked, suspiciously.

"Nothing," Wendy said. She looked at Sophie. "And if they've read the book at all by now, they'll know anyway."

"I'm just naturally worried about them," Sophie said in return, "But you're right. Knowing them, they've probably read that thing cover-to-cover by now."

"So when are we gonna open that book?" asked Ryan.

Kelly shrugged, pulling it out of her bag. "Let's see…" She opened the book. "OK, magic, magic, magic, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda, etc., etc., boring, boring, boring. Done." She tossed it against the wall. "Mom and Aunt Danni and Aunt Wend trust Karen and Carmen. If there's anything we need to know, we'll get it from them." She jumped up. "Speaking of which, we better meet them back in the lobby." She left, Ryan following…and the 2 were pulled down the stairs by an invisible and right up to Karen.

"Oh, good, you're back," said Karen, "We've gotta go over a few things."

"Yeah, warn us next time you do that!" Kelly cried, shaking herself off and grabbing her stomach, "That hurt!"

"Sorry! Just be happy I'm not premature like you, you probably would've fallen down the stairs!"

"Wait, these don't change, too, do they?" asked Ryan.

"Thankfully, no," Carmen said, coming up behind her sister, "It's just in the towers. Well, we need to go over some stuff." She led them off. They came back to the room they were practicing magic in. "OK, let's start with a simple transfiguration spell. Kelly?" Kelly came up to the table with her as she put an orange on it. "Orange into apple. Just concentrate and…point." Kelly closed her eyes, concentrated hard, and pointed at it… "OK, apple, pineapple. Not bad for a beginner." Kelly opened her eyes. Sure enough, it had come out as a pineapple. "Don't worry. You can do this."

_5 minutes later…_

Karen and Ryan were collecting about 50 pineapples in a bag to take to Haven.

"Well, we can only go up from here!" said Carmen.

"I'm doomed," said Kelly, "Forgive me for stealing Jack and Duck's line, but I am hopelessly and utterly doomed! I can't do magic!" She groaned. "If you need me, I'll be wandering through the halls moping." She left the room, slamming the door behind her.

"Don't worry about her," said Ryan, "Probably just hormones."

"They are stronger on Witches," Carmen said.

"Face it," said Karen, "She's right. She's doomed. She just came of age as a premature and a half-born. There's no way! And if she's doomed, they all are."

"Karen," Carmen warned.

Karen sighed. "Doesn't mean I'm not wrong." She put one last pineapple in the bag and started walking off to the kitchen.

Kelly walked down a hall with her arms crossed. She walked past one hall and justly barely noticed a scuffling sound and one of the lanterns shattering. She backed up and walked into the mouth of the hallway. "Hello? Is someone there?" There was another scuffling sound and another light broke. She stepped back just in time to avoid getting slices by a few glass shards.

"Get away…"

Kelly started freaking out. She ran out of the hall and back to the magic room. Carmen was trying to teach Ryan the transfiguration spell and he was doing alright. Kelly noticed the "Big Book of Spells" (as Carmen had called it) lying on the table by the mirror. She held out her hand and carefully pulled it toward her…and it once again slid from her grip and hit her in the head, knocking her to the ground and falling on the ground next to her. _OK, ow!_ She sat up and grabbed the book. She sat against the wall and started flipping through the pages, looking for something that could help with this situation. She couldn't seem to find an explanation for what had happened in that hallway. She groaned. "Why can't this thing just tell me what happened?" Suddenly, the pages started blowing around, but there was no wind. "Why am I not surprised?" The pages finally turned to reveal one spell in particular. Kelly started reading it and became intrigued at what she found:

_"Witches and Warlocks that have experienced the torture spell are never quite the same again. Some lose control of their powers and can no longer do spells based on anything but their emotions, doing a spell involuntarily every time their mood changes should a female have already given birth. Virgins and/or those underage are usually unable to survive prolonged use of the spell. Should the torturer choose to, the spell can cause severe mental damage. Due to the symptoms of this spell, it has been made illegal by the Witches' Council since the mortal year 1745. Anyone who has survived the curse has either been exiled or hidden themselves from every form of life."_

_Wow,_ Kelly thought, _That's horrible! I can't imagine having to go through that. I wonder if that's what's in that hall…_ She looked back at the hallway. She put the book on the table by the door when Carmen and Ryan weren't looking and ran back to the hallway. "Hello? Are you still there?" Another light overheated and exploded. "I'll take that as a 'yes.'" She started to slowly walk forward.

"Go away…"

Kelly followed her vibes and jumped back before another light exploded. "It's OK, I'm not gonna hurt you." She heard the scuffling noise again and followed it, going fast enough as to avoid the exploding lights, but slow enough as to not scare this poor creature… She finally saw someone huddled in a corner. "Hi." It looked at her, but she couldn't see it. It was too dark in that corner to see anything but the outline of the creature, which appeared to be a person. "My name's Kelly and…" The creature opened a secret passage in the wall and disappeared through it, the door closing behind it. "Wait!" Kelly knelt down in the corner and looked around. It seemed like there was a trick brick (no rhyme intended) in the wall. She examined the wall, followed the vibes, and carefully pushed in one of the white bricks, reopening the hatch. She crawled through the little door, which closed behind her, and found herself in an entirely dark hallway. _OK, now what? I can't see anything! Follow the vibes…try to remember a spell… _She followed the vibes telling her where to go until she remembered a spell her aunt had taught her in case she ended up in a dark situation. Kelly reached down to the skirt of her dress and pulled it up to reveal that she was still wearing her rainbow boots beneath it (Karen and Carmen hadn't bothered with her shoes since her dress was covering them) and pulled her wand out from her right boot. "_Litonia!_" Her wand lit up with a glowing light and she used it as a flashlight through the crawlspace until she came to a dark room with no other way out. She found the person there. "Hey."

The person backed away into another corner.

"It's OK. I…" Kelly stood up.

"Get away from me!" a female voice rang out through the darkness.

Kelly pointed her wand at her, accidentally shining the light in her eyes.

The girl looked away just a split second after Kelly got a glimpse of her radiant yet worried pink eyes. That's right, pink. Kelly looked her over and saw that she was a brunette with ivory skin. She was dressed in standard Witch's robes, but they'd been torn and beaten.

_Who knows what she's been through,_ Kelly thought. She slowly approached her. "It's OK, I'm not gonna hurt you."

"They all hurt me. They don't know it, but they hurt me. They try to hurt me even though they don't know they're doing it."

"I'm not gonna." Kelly knelt down next to her. "I'm a friend."

The girl looked at her. "Friend. Word I haven't heard in a long time. No friends down here in the darkness. Just me. Alone. No friends."

"It's OK." Kelly took her hand. "What's your name?"

The girl jerked her hand away. "Jupiter. They called me Jupiter. Before he came."

"Who? What happened?"

Jupiter looked her in the eye. "You don't wish to know. Why would anyone? They don't care how I feel. They don't even know I'm down here. Why would they wanna know that I'm suffering?"

"I do," said Kelly, "What happened to you? Who did this to you?"

Jupiter let out a little half-smile. "I'll show you." She touched her fingers to Kelly's temple…

Kelly felt herself yanked from her body and raced through a memory of one night in this girl's life…5 years ago…

_Jupiter was just 16 then. Her parents were the heads of the Witches' Council._

_One evening, she went to bed. It was just a couple hours after sunrise. Before she could close her eyes and fall asleep, she heard the zapping of spells in the living room. She sat up. "Mom? Dad? Is something wrong?" She heard no reply. She got up and raced into the living room. She opened the door and saw her father lying dead on the floor and her mother being choked to death by a Warlock. The Warlock looked at her and saw the fear in her eyes._

Kelly looked closer at this Warlock's eyes. She knew those eyes… Mars. The castle crow.

_Mars smirked at Jupiter. He held his free hand out at her and she felt her throat constricting. He was trying to choke her! Mars looked back at Jupiter's mother. "Pretty girl. Too bad she has to die for you all to understand no good can come from those mortals."_

_Jupiter's mother started crying. "NO!" She kicked Mars' stomach, knocking him back and making him let go of both of them, dropping them both to the floor. She crawled up to Jupiter. "No matter what happens. Don't let go. Remember what we told you last night…" She let out one last groan and fell to the ground, dead._

_Mars pointed his wand at Jupiter. "What'd they say to you last night?"_

_Jupiter looked at both her parents' dead bodies. She felt the tears welling up inside her, but she fought them back. She had to be strong now. She looked back at Mars and shook her head._

_Mars sighed. "Very well." Suddenly, he did a spell and zapped her with it._

_Jupiter screamed at the top of her lungs, scared, hurt, and unable to fight back._

Jupiter let go of Kelly.

Kelly looked at her. "Mars did this to you?"

Jupiter nodded. "His name. Mars. The one who hurt me. Killed my parents. Tried to convince everyone that mortals did it."

"I'll bet he tried to convince the mortals that Witches and Warlocks had killed their leaders," Kelly pondered out loud.

Jupiter nodded again. "Yes."

"He was punished. He has no magic now."

"He is a bird. Flies about the castle. I can't face him. Can't face anyone. They'll all hurt me."

"Not me."

Jupiter looked at Kelly. "Not you?"

Kelly shook her head. "No." Kelly thought of something. "You trust mortals, don't you?"

"More than I trust this kind. Now. 5 years. 21 years of this kind."

"Good."

Jupiter looked at her again.

"'Cause I'm both." Kelly smiled at that thought. She and her siblings and cousins weren't freaks of nature or politically incorrect or any of that junk. They were the perfect blending of 2 cultures, even if different species. And nothing anyone said was going to hurt them. Sticks and stones.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

That night, Karen and Carmen and Kelly and Ryan were packing up more pineapples to give to Haven before leaving.

"So what'd Haven say this afternoon when you gave her the first batch of pineapples?" asked Kelly.

"She said that if the lessons keep going this way, we may never need pineapples again," said Karen, "and that every Tuesday could be Hawaiian night."

Kelly smiled. "Uh, I have a magic question."

"Good," said Carmen, "That'll keep us going at the right pace. What's the question?"

"What's the torture spell?"

Karen and Carmen both stopped packing the pineapples for a few seconds, staring at Kelly in shocked silence.

"What?"

Carmen sighed and put one last pineapple in the bag before closing it and sitting down, Kelly and Ryan looking at each other and following her example while Karen kept picking up pineapples. "The torture spell is the most horrific spell that is usually non-lethal. It can drive a person insane, make them lose control of their power, or even kill them about 5% of the time. It and 9 other spells are absolutely illegal, unforgivable, and intolerable in any dimension, even in the 7 Hells."

"The Terrorific 10," said Karen.

"Right," said Carmen. She sighed. "Anyway…there are only 100 people out of the entirety of the population of this realm still alive now that have ever _seen_ this spell being used by a Dark Wizard, let alone experienced it. And every single time, the effects have been horrible and the caster punished to the extent of losing their magic forever and cast into a land of ultimate torture."

"So, basically, you're saying this spell is one of the worst," said Ryan.

"Exactly. In fact, it was the pivotal point in Mars' big plot. He killed the mortals' leaders and tried to convince them that Witches and Warlocks did it, and then vice versa, and he used the torture spell to keep out sane people knowing what he had done and reporting him. Luckily, no one believed him and the Anasalan authorities caught him before he could start any war or anything. One girl he tortured, Jupiter Strongleaf, the Witches' Council's head Witch and Warlock's daughter, disappeared entirely and was never seen again. Some people here think she's here, lurking about the castle and waiting for someone to break her from her delirium, but I doubt that's possible."

Kelly realized that it was possible. Because that's exactly what was happening! She nodded. "OK, that solves my question."

"How'd you hear about that spell, anyway?" asked Carmen.

"I…It's a long story. I guess I'd heard of one of the other 'Terrorific 10'…I think one of them is what killed my mom but didn't kill her the night her parents died."

"We heard that story," said Karen, "Didn't think she'd died. There was no way. But I guess it must be true. How else would she be the Listener?"

Kelly nodded. "Well, I gotta do a few things and then the 2 of us need to get some rest. Long day." She got up and left.

"Yeah, uh…ditto." Ryan got up and followed her.

"What's 'ditto'?" asked Karen.

"Must be a mortal term," said Carmen, shrugging.

Ryan stopped Kelly in the halls. "What was that? How'd you know about that spell?"

Kelly hesitated. "I told you it was a long story, Rye."

"Trust me, we've got time."

"I don't think she can handle it just yet."

"Who? What're you talking about?"

Kelly looked around. Her vision vibes (her gut) were telling her to just come out with it and tell him. But her Witch's sense (her other gut) was telling her that Jupiter couldn't handle anyone else in her current state. _So I'll just work around it. I'll let Ryan see Jupiter, but won't let Jupiter see Ryan._ "Come on, I've gotta show you something." As she led him to the hall, she told him the story of the crazy Witch girl she'd found in the hall and how she'd suffered through Mars' torture spell.

"You're kidding," said Ryan.

"You believe me?" Kelly asked.

"Why wouldn't I? We've been through enough that I can easily understand anything that happens to us."

"Good point." Kelly came to the hall and stopped Ryan outside it. "She can't see you," she whispered to her brother, so low that Jupiter would surely not hear them, "She's not even used to me yet." Ryan nodded and planted his feet to the ground against the hall as though they were nailed to the floor. "Good." Kelly peeked down the hall. "Jupiter?"

Jupiter came out of the darkness. "Kelly."

Kelly smiled and slowly came towards her. "Yeah, it's me. You expecting someone else?"

"No one else knows I'm here. Mars is the only other one to pass this hall. He thinks it's haunted."

Kelly smiled, holding back a giggle.

Ryan peered down the hall and saw the 2 girls together. He smiled and crept down the hall to go back to his room (which was also Kelly's).

Jupiter heard his footsteps and gasped. "There's someone else here."

Kelly went back to the mouth of the hall to scold her brother for scaring her, but found that he wasn't there. "No one else here."

"Right, I'm just crazy," said Jupiter.

Kelly looked at her. "No offense, but you kind of are."

Jupiter smiled.

Kelly smiled back. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"I'll be waiting." Jupiter watched her leave. "Right here." She went back to her corner. "Something's gonna happen. You probably sense it already. Psychic Witch. Something's gonna happen to you…and your brother…"

Ryan plopped down on his bed, zapping himself ready to go to sleep.

Kelly followed his example.

"So you went and made a friend."

"Yep. 1 friend in 20 acres of house and she's a crazy kooky."

"It's just like home."

Kelly grabbed her pillow and threw it at him.

He laughed and threw it back.

She laughed back at the 2 found themselves in a brief pillow fight. Suddenly, the headphone rang. Kelly picked it up and answered. "What is it, Mom? It's getting kind of late."

"I know, it's been an hour here," came Sophie's voice, "So we're limiting ourselves to calling at the end of every day/hour."

"Good, then we don't have to worry about carrying shrunken heads all over the place," said Ryan.

Kelly glared at him. "Hey, I forgot to mention earlier but really wanna know about now…" Wendy started drinking some water. "Do you guys know that Mars is here?"

Wendy did a spit take. "WHAT?"

"I take it you didn't know?"

Wendy snatched the headphone from her sister. "Mars is there? That idiot? That jerk dumped me and tried to wage an inter-dimensional war!"

"You dated an evil guy?" Duck asked.

"She dated lots of evil guys," said Daniella.

"I thought we agreed we weren't gonna tell him about that!" Wendy scolded her sister.

"Oh yeah. Oops."

Wendy glared at her.

"That's what you get for calling _me_ a mindless hamster."

"Uh, still here…again," Kelly said.

"Right, sorry," said Wendy, "Danni, you take it from here."

Daniella took the headphone. "Watch out for Mars, he's dangerous."

"Yeah, you're telling me," said Kelly.

"Seriously. He can do serious damage to you guys!"

"What's he gonna do?" asked Ryan, "He has no magic."

"He doesn't?"

"You guys don't know?" asked Kelly.

"Don't know about what?"

"Mars got caught before his war could start. The authorities here turned him into a bird."

"Oh. Right. Animal imprisonment spell. Should've guessed that."

Sophie snatched the phone back. "Listen, guys. There's something I gotta tell you, just in case. It's gonna be hard for me to say, and I'm guessing a little harder to believe, but…oh, for crying out loud! I'm just gonna say it!" She started to say it, but was interrupted by snoring on the other side. Kelly and Ryan had both fallen asleep. "I gotta learn to get to my point faster."

_10 minutes/10 hours later…_

Kelly woke up first. She looked out the window at the horizon and smiled at the sight.

Ryan started to wake up. "Anything yet?"

"Nothing."

"You know…Karen and Carmen weren't gonna make us show up for a magic lesson until this afternoon…maybe we should stop by Mom and Aunt Danni and Aunt Wendy's old place and meet the family."

Kelly considered this. "Hmm…maybe that's a good idea. I'll just go tell Jupiter to—"

The headphone started vibrating.

"Oh, come on!" Kelly picked up the phone. "What do you want? I thought you said you were only gonna call at the end of the day."

"Well," Sophie said, "we were kind of trying to tell you something important."

"Forgive me for wanting to sleep," said Ryan.

"Could you hurry?" asked Kelly while Wendy sighed, rolled her eyes, and starting drinking some water, "We were gonna go meet your family—"

Wendy did a spit take. "_What?_ They're meeting our family? NO!" She jumped up from the couch and ran over there to grab the headphone.

Kelly and Ryan heard a huge ruckus (yes, I just said ruckus) with shouting and banging and the glass-break-cat-screech thing (with some added sound effects).

Finally, Duck had Wendy pinned to the couch, holding her right hand and leg behind her back as he sat on top of her. "What is wrong with you?"

Wendy zapped him off and got up from the couch. "Sorry. But our family is crazy. It's why we only let you meet our parents, the levelheaded kookies."

Daniella picked the headphone back up. "Alright, you're pretty much safe with them, I guess. Just stay with Juniper, Tabitha, and Kestrel and keep _AWAY_ from Skeeter."

Kelly looked at Ryan and gave him the "cuckoo" sign. "OK…" Ryan shrugged. Kelly shrugged back. "Later." She turned off the phone.

"Is your family really that crazy?" asked Duck.

Daniella sighed. "Let me put it this way: the most 'normal' day our family ever had was when Dad's brother Skeeter went out of town for a week and their sister, Galena, accidentally zapped up a citywide blackout and an army of Trolls."

"Yeah, the lake 20 miles away was dry for a year after that," said Wendy.

"I will ask no more," said Tech, grabbing his device and walking off to his lab.

Sophie sighed and followed her husband so she could go to the nursery and check on their kids.

"I wonder why Wendy's so uptight about their family," said Ryan.

"Well, I don't know," said Kelly, "But they're our family, too, and if they're anything like us…" She almost finished that sentence, then thought better of it. "…I better warn Jupiter to be prepared to leave the castle to zap away the literal circus." She left.

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" Ryan asked his sister. Kelly glared at him through the door. He thought about that. "Yeah, you should probably go."

Kelly nodded and left.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Kelly and Ryan walked into the lobby with Karen and Carmen.

"Are you sure about meeting your family?" asked Karen, "I met them once and they're absolutely crazy!"

"No offense, Karen, but you also think we'll both be stranded in our tower for the rest of our immortal lives because we'll only be able to zap up pineapples."

"Well, you aren't doing that well—"

"Karen!" Carmen snapped, "You need to relax! You've been even more on edge lately!"

"OK, OK. Just listen to your aunt and don't talk to Skeeter. Or Galena, for that matter. _Sometimes_, she can be a pest."

"She doesn't try," said Carmen.

"Sounds like someone else we know," said Ryan, glaring at his sister.

Kelly glared back. "Hurtful!"

"Don't worry," said Carmen, "Sometimes, Galena is WAY worse."

"We're meeting her today," Ryan pointing out, "Is that supposed to be a comfort?"

"Good point, let's just zap you over there," said Carmen.

"Whoa! Wait a minute!" Karen stopped her, "If _we_ zap them over there, then because of the castle's enchantment, _we_ would have to zap them back and _we_ won't know when to."

"I can do it!" said Kelly, "I know the spell. _From castle to cottage_ —"

Ryan stopped her. "NO! I'll do it! I don't wanna be turned into a pineapple."

Kelly pouted, but dropped the spell.

Ryan closed his eyes and focused. "_From castle to cottage, friends to family, take us to the humble abode of the relatives we've yet to meet._" He zapped them.

"That was an improv, wasn't it?" asked Carmen.

"Well, it was still the right spell," said Karen, "Got 'em out of here." She walked off.

Carmen stood there, openmouthed at her sister's behavior. "Karen!" She raced after her to give her a "good-old-fashioned, Witch-y taking-to."

Back in Acmetropolis, Daniella was pacing while Sophie was etching out a letter. "Skeeter's gonna kill 'em. I know he will. He's worse than Wendy!"

"Hey!" Wendy snapped, "I'm not that bad!"

"Oh, really?" Daniella snapped back, "This coming from the girl who once turned an entire village of people into donkeys!"

"I said I was sorry."

"Then I guess it was no coincidence that the village just so happened to be—at the time—my boyfriend's!"

"Oh. I'm really sorry."

"Look, I'm more concerned about our niece and nephew right now."

"There's nothing to be concerned about," said Sophie, "Tabitha will watch Skeeter. She always does."

Daniella glared at her. "You're writing a letter to Tabitha right now, aren't you?"

"Maybe…" Sophie sighed and put down her pen as she finished writing the letter. "Alright, now we just have to mail it urgently… Where's the key?"

"Oh! I have it!" Daniella grabbed her bag. She opened it and pulled out a magnifying glass. "No." She tossed it aside and then pulled out an umbrella, drawing some slight shock from the others (I say "slight" because they were generally used to it by now). "No." She tossed it aside and pulled out a hat. "No." Pearl necklace. "Uh-uh." Coat rack. "Hold on a second…" She pulled out the bottom and tossed it on the floor. "Nope." Parrot. "Oh, I've been looking for this little guy! But no." She let him fly off and finally pulled out a giant golden key. "Bingo. Found it."

Sophie snatched the key and used it to open a portal in midair. She put the letter in an envelope and sealed it. "_Mail-us Spontaneous _Tabitha Quince." The portal sucked in the note and disappeared.

Meanwhile, a young blonde lady with bright blue eyes was in her cottage, cooking. Suddenly, a portal opened above her and a letter dropped on her head. She snatched it. "Hey, Juniper! Get in here!" She let go of the ladle she was stirring a bowl of soup with, but it kept going without her support.

A girl with bright-red-tinted brown hair and hazel eyes came in. "What is it, Tabitha?" She held up a viper. "Skeeter made a zoo in his room before zapping himself off. I am sick and tired of living with that viper." The snake hissed at her. "No offense."

Tabitha opened the letter. She looked at it. "It's a letter from Sophie. She sent it by quick mail."

"Bet she wants to come home," said Juniper, wrapping the viper around her waist like a belt and tying it in a knot, "Sick of living with all those mortals."

"Juniper, I told you to stop with that."

"Fine. What'd she say?"

Tabitha looked the letter over. "Says that her 2 eldest kids are in Anasala Castle and planned to stop by the cottage to meet us. We're supposed to watch Skeeter."

"Good luck with that," said Juniper, un-animating the viper and turning him into an actually belt, "The best thing that comes out of him is the animals we get to un-animate into stylish accessories."

"You mean _you_ get to un-animate?"

"I resent that! I gave you the rhinoceros earrings and dolphin skirt."

"Juniper, can we have this conversation later? Although, I do look good in those clothes." She put a hand on her hip and smiled.

Juniper glared at her. "Forget this. When are these kids coming?"

Suddenly, they heard 2 people screaming in the distance. The screaming slowly became closer until Kelly and Ryan appeared and dropped on the couch in the living room.

Juniper saw this and stared at them.

Tabitha forced out a small smile. "Apparently, now."

Juniper slowly turned to glare at her.

Kelly got up, followed by Ryan. "'Sup?"

Juniper just crossed her arms at them.

Ryan pushed his sister back. "Excuse my sister, she's a little…eh."

"Quit complaining," said Kelly, "Look what I got."

"You must be Kelly and Ryan," said Tabitha, "I'm Tabitha. This…quirky young lady…" Juniper glared at her. "…is Juniper."

"Yeah, our aunt told us about you 2," said Kelly, "She said to stick with you 2 and some girl named Kestrel and to '_stay away_' from Skeeter."

"Oh, you _definitely_ wanna stay away from Skeeter," said Juniper, "The only good that's come from him today alone is this belt I'm wearing. Which I transformed from a South African viper."

Ryan nodded. "I can see how that would be something to stay away from."

"He's not evil or anything, right?" asked Kelly.

"Oh, nothing like that," said Tabitha, "He's more of a troublemaker than his sister, Galena, but he's…well, half the time he does stuff by accident, and the other half of the time he does something simple on purpose and it backfires."

"So, basically, he's your standard antagonist?"

"I guess you could put it that way."

"Or your basic Kelly Coyote," said Ryan. Kelly elbowed him in the gut.

"Ignore him," said Kelly, "Pressure from all this stuff we're going through lately."

"Don't worry about it," said Tabitha, "Your mom's great-great-grandfather always said 'Even King Arthur disvalued his leadership sometimes.'"

"Wait," Ryan said, "Our great-great-great-grandfather _knew_ King Arthur?"

Tabitha scoffed. "In truth."

"Was Mom's great-great-grandfather Merlin?" asked Kelly.

"What? No. Marvin, Merlin's cousin."

Kelly and Ryan stared at her.

"SKEETER!"

"I think that's Kestrel," said Juniper without moving.

A girl with blue eyes and chocolate brown hair stormed in. "Alright, where is the little twerp? He just turned my bed into a mouse!" She held up a little white mouse with brown spots.

"Aw, he's cute!" Kelly cooed.

Kestrel glared at her. "Well, get used to it, 'cause he's what Skeeter's gonna look like when I'm _started_ with him. And you are?"

"Kelly and Ryan Coyote," said Ryan, "Sophie's 2 eldest kids."

"Oh!" Kestrel said. She threw the mouse at Juniper, who quickly grabbed it and zapped it back to Kestrel's room. "Right! My cousin."

"Your cousin?" asked Kelly.

"Yeah, Galena, her father's sister, is my mother."

"You mind showing us the family tree chart?" asked Ryan.

"Sure," said Tabitha. She snapped her fingers and a giant laminated paper dropped from the ceiling and draped behind her. It showed a large chart of the family. "OK, this side of your family, the mortal side, is the easy one. Looks like…your dad had 3 siblings and his parents, who are now dead _as well as _Sophie's parents. Every branch of his family appears to have only had one litter of coyotes each and your cousins are pretty scarce in your area of Acmetropolis. However, this side of the family is _REALLY _confusing. It all started with your great-great-great-grandfather, the triplets' great-great-grandfather, Marvin. He was the first in the Spellman line to have more than 2 kids by having 5: Pluto, a boy; Mark, a boy; Venus, a girl; Mildred, another girl; and Ira, also a girl. Pluto married Aileen and they had 2 kids: Wendell and Janine, boy and girl. And then Mark married Russia—"

"WHOA!" Kelly stopped her, "I'm confused already! Just let us see the chart!"

"Oh." Tabitha moved aside, revealing the chart:

Marvin – Mabel  
Pluto (boy) Mark (boy) Venus (girl) Mildred (girl) Ira (girl)

Pluto – Aileen  
Wendell (boy) Janine (girl)

Mark – Russia  
Martha (girl) Clara (girl)

Venus – Asa  
Mercury (girl) Saturn (girl) Phil (boy)

Mildred – Diego  
Chastity (girl)

Ira – Neptune  
Chloe and Zoe (twin girls)

Wendell – Julia  
Claudia (girl)

Janine – Demitri  
Gretel (girl)

Martha – Beryl  
Yet to have kids

Clara yet to marry

Mercury – Landon  
Danika and Monica (twin girls)

Saturn – Micah  
Brayden (boy) Skeeter (boy) Galena (girl)

Phil – Luanne  
Yet to have kids

Chastity – Chase  
Yet to have kids

Chloe yet to marry  
Zoe yet to marry

Claudia – Rylan  
Loretta (girl) Juniper (girl)

Gretel – Kade  
Riley (boy)

Danika yet to marry

Monica yet to marry

Brayden – Lainie  
Daniella and Wendy and Sophie (triplet girls)

Loretta – Collin  
Vanessa (girl)

Juniper yet to marry

Skeeter yet to marry

Galena – Gavin  
Kestrel (girl)

Ryan and Kelly finished going through and…surprisingly, got even more confused.

Kelly looked at Tabitha. "What?"

"Wait," said Ryan, "I see Juniper and Kestrel but Tabitha isn't on here."

"Oh, I'm Micah's sister," Tabitha explained, pointing out the triplets' grandfather.

"OK, I think I got it now. But you're right, that is confusing."

"Told you."

Suddenly, a puff of smoke emerged in the center of the room. When it cleared, there was a dark-haired man with bluish-brown eyes. He was dressed oddly, too, wearing a Shakespearean-period outfit. "Hey, everyone! Sorry about the whole zoo situation but I made the best of it by performing in the world premiere of _Romeo and Juliet_ with a Capuchin monkey. Ha!" He then noticed Kelly and Ryan. "Who are these guys?"

Juniper sighed. "Skeeter, this is Kelly and Ryan Coyote, Sophie's kids. Kelly, Ryan, this is your uncle, Skeeter."

"Oh!" Skeeter said, "Sophie's kids! How's my little niece doing?"

"Fine," said Kelly.

"Not so little anymore," Ryan added.

"Well, obviously not," said Skeeter, "So…do either of you care to go alpaca surfing?"

Kelly and Ryan slowly turned to look at Kestrel, who shook her head.

"Suit yourselves," said Skeeter. He took out a wand and zapped himself off.

"Yeah, with Skeeter, it's one thing after another," said Kestrel before walking off.

Kelly wasn't thinking about her bizarre great-uncle. She had noticed when she was looking at the chart that her mom's dad's side of the family had some unusual but common names, exotic names, and old-fashioned names, the kind of stuff that seemed common in Anasala, but her mom's _mom's_ side seemed to have some fairly simplistic names, like her mortal family. Was this something important that she didn't understand? Was her mom hiding something?

* * *

Yeah, I wrote this and I don't understand the triplets' family. Come to think of it, I don't think the triplets understand their family. The Loonatics themselves SO FAR was bad enough! Anyway, you don't have to memorize the tree or anything but I can see how it would be confusing in more than a few places, so...good luck with that. Read on to figure out what Kelly was investigating, it's gonna be in the third season!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Kelly and Ryan set to work helping Tabitha and Juniper get rid of Skeeter's zoo while Kestrel finished Tabitha's cooking. After an hour, Kestrel came out of the kitchen and could hear a racket emerging from Skeeter's room. She listened closer and heard Kelly, Ryan, Tabitha, and Juniper getting into some trouble with an elephant, which, unfortunately, they'd saved for last.

Tabitha: Ryan, grab it! We can't zap it if it keeps moving.

Ryan: OK…nice elephant…

The elephant trumpeted.

Ryan: I can't do it!

Juniper: Oh, you little crybaby.

Kelly: Thank you! I'll do it. WHOA!

Kelly was launched back through Skeeter's door and slammed into the hall wall (no rhyme intended) when she'd grabbed the elephant's trunk and it had knocked her back.

Kestrel ran up to help her. "Are you OK?"

Kelly got up and brushed herself off. "I was fine until Dumbo here decided to smack me through the door."

Juniper emerged from the room, holding an elephant statuette. "Here. You can have the paperweight."

Kelly took it. "Thanks."

"Oh, but whatever you do, don't break it. It'll break the enchantment and the elephant will come back out."

"So you've done this a lot?" Ryan asked.

"Every week. Skeeter is seriously attached to his critters." Juniper went back into the room to collect their animal décor with Tabitha and Ryan.

Kelly and Kestrel, however, went back to the living room and went over the family tree chart again.

"Rather confusing, huh?" asked Kestrel.

"Totally."

"It's OK. I've been in this family for over 150 years and I still don't understand most of it myself."

Kelly smiled. She went back to the chart. Why was it so messed up because of the names? What I mean to say is: Brayden's side of the family (the triplets' dad) had names like Gretel, Kestrel, Skeeter, and Neptune. But Lainie's side (the triplets' mom) had simple names like Samantha, Anna, Matthew, and Christopher…names you'd usually give to mortals. Maybe her grandmother's side was simply mortal-positive unlike some of the other Witches like Karen or Juniper. She wasn't gonna know until she asked someone about this. "Kestrel…is there something different about my grandmother's side of the family?"

Kestrel looked at her. "Did your mother and aunts not tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

_BOOM!_ Before Kestrel could tell Kelly anything, Ryan, Tabitha, and Juniper jumped out of Skeeter's room.

"There was a lion under Skeeter's bed," Tabitha explained, sending a bolt of magic into the room. She walked up to Kelly and Kestrel while Juniper was walking into the room to fetch whatever Tabitha had zapped up from the lion. "So, Kelly, you prepared to meet the rest of the family, or do you need some time?"

"I think I'd prefer to wait, but I don't know if that'd cause any trouble or—"

"Oh, relax," said Juniper, coming in with a lion headband, "Clara is a little crazy, and your grandparents are still a little…off from losing Lainie and Brayden, but if you stay away from Skeeter, stick with us, and make sure not to talk too much to the twins, you'll be fine."

"Which twins?" asked Ryan, "There's 2 sets on the chart."

Tabitha looked at the chart. "Both sets."

"We'll wait."

Kelly sighed and looked out the window while Tabitha was shrinking the chart to give to Ryan. "Looks like it's getting a little late. Almost sunset. Maybe we should go back to the castle."

Ryan took the shrunken chart and put it into the guide book that Daniella had given them. "Kelly's right. We better get going. I'm hungry anyway."

"You sure you don't want any fruit salad or anything?" Tabitha asked.

"Trust me, we've had enough fruit this week," said Kelly, preparing for Ryan to zap them back.

"Ooh," said Kestrel, "Magic block?"

"Can only zap up pineapples."

"It'll wear off once you've worked on it enough."

"Good. 'Cause I don't think I can stand to even look at another pineapple this week. Ryan, zap us back."

Ryan nodded. "Here goes nothing. _From cottage to castle, take us back…to where we're learning our magic to get us back on track!_" He zapped them off.

Kestrel looked at Tabitha and Juniper. "Was that an improv?"

"Still the right spell," said Tabitha.

"Who cares?" scoffed Juniper, "Got 'em out of here."

"Juniper!" Tabitha scolded.

Karen and Carmen were walking through the castle foyer.

"They better get back here soon," said Carmen, "Arielle is not gonna be happy if her successors are not at the coronation dinner."

"Relax, Car," said Karen, "I'm sure they're zapping themselves back here right now."

Suddenly, they heard screaming in the distance. They looked up as the screaming got closer and Kelly and Ryan dropped from the ceiling and landed on them.

"Gotta work on my landings," said Ryan as he got up, helping Karen up after him.

"You said it," Kelly said, getting up and helping up Carmen, "Ow."

"You guys OK?" Ryan asked the twins.

"Fine," said Karen, "You?"

"Been better," said Kelly, massaging her neck.

"Maybe eating something at the coronation dinner will help you feel better," said Carmen, "Come on!" She started to lead them off.

"OK," said Kelly, "Anything but pineapple." They all started laughing at that one, even stingy old Karen. As they were walking through the halls, Karen and Carmen led them past Jupiter's hallway. Kelly stopped walking while they kept on, signaling to Ryan to cover for her. She snuck down the hall.

"Kelly?"

Kelly smiled and turned to face Jupiter. "Hey. It's me again."

"Your family…you've been gone for hours…"

"I know. They're totally crazy. I had to help my aunt and cousins sweep up a zoo in my uncle's room."

Jupiter smiled. "Wish I'd been there to see that."

Kelly smiled back and giggled. "Kind of wish you'd been there, too." She then remembered that she'd been meaning to ask Jupiter about that spell she'd cast… "By the way, what was that spell you cast with the…showing me your memories and…"

"Simple spell, really…hard to master, but simple to cast…memory-message…I can teach you."

Kelly half-smiled at the thought. "Sure. Later. I have to go." She skipped off.

Jupiter stared after her. "No idea what will happen tonight…"

Kelly ran up to Ryan and the twins as they were preparing to enter the banquet hall.

"Ready?" Carmen asked as she and Karen prepared to open the door. Kelly and Ryan nodded. Karen and Carmen opened the door.

Kelly and Ryan stared in awe and wonder at the magnificent corridor before them. The table was so long it could hold thousands of people. The walls bore brilliant tapestries that could only have been made by a seamstress Witch as talented as Shaya (or by birds and mice, but that's a different story).

"Wow," said Kelly. She looked at the wall behind the end of the table. It had the door to the kitchen and, above it, a giant star surrounded by smaller stars printed on the wall. "What's with the star symbol?"

Carmen looked at it. "Oh, that's Arielle's crest."

"Crest?"

"It's like a Witch ID. When they cast certain spells, their crest shows up. It's always the same for each individual Witch or Warlock. Since Arielle's reigning right now, her crest is shown. Once the 2 of you are crowned, your crests are gonna be up there instead."

"Yeah, one problem. We don't know what they are."

"Oh, don't worry. The wall's enchanted, it'll change by itself when you're crowned."

Kelly nodded. "Good." She gave a quick thumbs-up and started to walk off, followed by Ryan and the twins. As she passed a floating tray handing out the drinks, she grabbed a goblet.

Ryan did the same, the twins following. "Kelly, I'm sensing some tension. If this is about the magic, we're getting better. In fact, I'll bet that by the time the week is out, we'll be at apples!"

Kelly smiled and shrugged. "Pineapples to apples. Yeah, I guess that would be some progress."

"Gangway!" Mars zoomed over their heads, cutting dangerously close to their heads. They ducked just in time.

Ryan had been so startled that he'd fallen into Carmen's arms in an attempt to not drop the goblet. Carmen pushed him back onto his feet.

While Kelly tried to regain her composure, Karen stomped forward a foot and glared up at Mars, who was now rested on a banister near the ceiling. "What is wrong with you, you stupid parakeet?"

"Crow! And I just wanted to scare you out of your wits." He started laughing again.

Karen snarled at him and zapped her drink at him. "There. Your wings are damp with pumpkin juice and my spirits are perfectly intact. It's just like when we were going to school together." She summoned another goblet from the tray and kept walking, the other 3 following.

"I am so glad I broke up with her before dating Wendy," said Mars from under the goblet, his wings to damp for him to fly off the banister.

Shaya ran up to Kelly, Ryan, and the twins. "Man, can you believe what a jerk Mars is sometimes? It's ridiculous." She started drinking from her own goblet.

"Can't you wait until the banquet actually starts to gulp down your juice?" asked Karen.

Shaya waved her hand at them and then stopped drinking. "I'm am too thirsty to wait. So I put my goblet on the table already and zapped up some diet cola." She walked off.

Arielle came into the hall after Shaya walked off and approached the 4. "Shaya can be a little…frantic sometimes, but all-in-all, she's a nice girl…once you get to know her." She went to sit down.

Kelly and Ryan looked at each other and shrugged. They then sat down next to the twins.

The Coven was across from them.

"You know," Saffron told Kelly and Ryan, "usually we just walk into the kitchen and take what we want when we're hungry. When we do have a banquet like this, which is usually on rare and/or special occasions, it's mainly a normal sit-down of some sort. But for you guys she went all-out." She propped her elbow on the table and rested her head in her hand. "I can't imagine why."

"Saffron, these 2 are special," Carmen argued.

Penelope scoffed and raised a hand. "Oh, whatever you say, oh great and powerful Karen."

"I'm Karen!" Karen corrected.

"Whatever!"

Amanda glared at Penelope. "Penelope, you need some work." She started rubbing her temple if she had a headache. "And now I do. As soon as I get out of the Coven, I'm going straight to therapy!"

Joy looked at Kelly. "Pay no attention to her. She's been working too long. Hey! You want me to try to read your mind? I've been trying to work on spells like that. I joined the Coven at a young age, so…"

"I kind of get the idea," Kelly said, holding her hand out, "Sure."

Joy closed her eyes and began to trace Kelly's palm with her forefinger. "OK…you're thinking of…pickles."

"No, I'm thinking of home."

Joy opened her eyes.

"And now I'm thinking you're crazy."

"Huh, then I must be thinking of pickles."

Eric slowly turned to glare at her. "Joy, how many times do I have to tell you?" He raised a finger. "1: Keep your mind clear when you're doing spells like that. 2: You're an idiot!"

Joy glared at him, openmouthed.

Kelly sighed, rolling her eyes.

"You wanna know what I'm thinking?" asked Ryan.

"Ryan!" Kelly scolded her brother.

Before they could keep going at it, Haven appeared behind them. "Ahem." They all looked at her. "If you're done…" She clapped her hands and the food started coming out by itself. "Made it all myself." Kelly and Ryan looked at her in shock. "Yup, all of it in a week. By my own hands. Or rather my finger." She held up her zapping finger and smiled. "And some parts by my wand, but I tend to keep that one low-profile." She walked off.

"Yeah, Haven takes her cooking seriously," Carmen explained as the food started serving itself to everyone, "No food in this castle, even zapped up by the Witch/Warlock who wanted it, _doesn't_ pass through her hands at some point or other."

"Even that pizza Saffron zapped up for the Coven yesterday?" Ryan asked.

"Oh, especially the Coven's and her sister's food," said Karen, "Mars' food, however, is a different story. Let's put it this way: this castle never has to call an exterminator."

Before Kelly and Ryan could say anymore, the banquet started.

While everyone started eating, however, Kelly got a vision… Kelly gasped and stopped her brother from touching anything. "Don't!" she hissed.

"What?"

"I just got a vision. It's…" She looked around to make sure no one was listening. "The drinks were—" Before she could finished, Brad zapped up some instruments, which immediately started playing and drowned out the last word in Kelly's sentence.

"What?" Ryan asked.

Kelly repeated it.

"What?" Ryan asked again.

The band stopped.

"OUR DRINKS WERE POISONED!" Kelly then realized the band had stopped before she'd said it. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at them.

Brad, without looking away from them, zapped the trumpet and it made the "wah-wah-wah" noise.

Arielle got up from her chair and raced over there, summoning Kelly's goblet into her hand on the way. She investigated it and then zapped Ryan's when she got there. "She's right. Someone tampered with their goblets."

Kelly stood up, too, Ryan following her example. "But it's just these 2. Everyone else was fine."

"I know. How'd you know?"

"Vision. Freak thing."

"Well, did you happen to see who did it?"

Kelly shook her head. "I don't control what I see or when I see it, I just saw the poison kicking in. It could've been anyone here."

The band instruments played the "dun-dun-dun" tune.

Karen stood up as well, Carmen following _her_ example. "She's right. We were watching these 2 and almost everyone came into contact with them somehow after they got a hold of those drinks. And if they didn't come close enough, they could've zapped it."

"Well, you just said you were watching them since they came in here," said Penelope, "How do we know you didn't do it?"

_DUN-DUN-DUN!_

"Relax, people!" Arielle said, "Everyone's innocent until proven guilty."

"More like guilty until proven innocent," said Ryan, "Everyone we did come into contact with had a motive."

Haven took off her chef's outfit. "Surely you're not suggesting someone did this on purpose. Maybe the vision was wrong. Or one of you accidentally zapped yourselves. I mean, look at all the pineapples that have been zapped up by you 2 just in the past 2 days!"

Arielle put a hand on her hip. "Haven, you're smart enough to know that if they're so off, that same effect would be the same in every spell they cast until the magic block clears up. This was obviously on purpose!"

_DUN-DUN-DUN!_

"WOULD YOU STOP THAT?" Kelly shouted at Brad's instruments.

"Sorry!" Brad zapped the instruments and they clattered to the floor and disappeared.

Arielle sighed. "Excuse my brother," she whispered to Kelly and Ryan, "He can be…quirky sometimes." She looked back at everyone. "Look, someone here attempted to poison my successors. And until we know who it is…" She waved her hand and the doors to the hall closed and wouldn't reopen. "…no one leaves this room!"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Sophie looked at the clock. "Alright, it's almost the end of another hour. Give me the headphone."

Daniella handed it over.

Sophie called Kelly and Ryan.

In Kelly and Ryan's room, the headphone started ringing. But no one was there to pick it up.

Sophie kept waiting for someone to answer. Finally, she hung up. "That's weird. Why aren't they answering?"

"Maybe they're already asleep," said Tech, "Let's give them 10 minutes." Sophie nodded.

Ryan, meanwhile, was pounding on the doors. "LET ME OUT! I CAN'T BREATHE!"

"RYAN!" Kelly stopped him, "We have plenty of air! The place is enchanted! Shut up!"

"Right. Sorry." Ryan stopped and looked at her. "How long have we been in here?"

"3 hours," Karen answered. She walked over to Arielle. "Please tell me you found something."

Arielle sighed and put down the goblets. "Nothing. I can't find anything that could tell us what happened."

Haven approached her sister. "Arielle, don't you think you're overreacting about this one?"

"Haven, someone tried to kill one of my friends' children. I won't sleep until I know who did it."

"So you had to lock everyone in here?"

"Whatever it takes. And I know at least Kelly and Ryan understand me. Right?" Nothing. "Right?" Still nothing. She turned around and saw the 2 asleep on the floor.

Carmen looked at Arielle. "Yeah, that happens a lot."

Arielle sighed. "Perhaps it's best they get their rest now. If someone on my court is out to get us from the inside…I fear all of Anasala may be in trouble…"

_7 minutes/7 hours later…_

Ryan snapped up in a bed. "It was all a dream! Anasala isn't in danger!"

"Ryan…" Karen yanked him out of the bed. "…for the last time, that isn't working!" She zapped the bed away.

"That's it!" Saffron cried, "10 hours is long enough! I'm getting out of here!" She raced towards the sealed doors to ram them down. It didn't work, so she started throwing her body against the enchanted wood. The rest of the Coven ran over there and pulled her off.

"She's OK," said Amanda, "As much time as she spent with us on top of all this, I think she got Witch's Snap."

"That's not all that's gonna get snapped!" Saffron cried, attempting to kick herself out of their grip.

"Witch's Snap?" Kelly asked the twins.

"It's like a Witch's—or Warlock's—common cold," Carmen explained, "Too much stress and they almost literally lose their minds until they almost literally blow off some steam."

"She's gonna explode?" asked Ryan.

"Oh, no! That's a village myth."

Karen glared at her sister. "One is easy to handle. If any more of us here go out of it, we're dead."

Kelly sighed. "Then maybe we should start figuring out whodunit. I'll go call Mom and Dad." She started to walk off… "The headphone's in our room."

Carmen smiled. "Got it covered." She pulled out a hand mirror. "Witch's Glass. It's like a videophone. And it's perfect for interspecies and interdimensional communication." It started vibrating. "For instance, your mom's calling right now. Wait a minute, your mom's calling?" She zapped the Witch's Glass and an image of Sophie appeared on the screen, surrounded by fog. "Sophie, is something wrong?"

"That depends: are my kids OK?"

"We were until 10 hours ago," said Kelly, turning the mirror to face her.

"What happened? Did Skeeter summon a zoo again?"

"Yes, but that's not the problem."

Wendy started to drink some more water, but thought better of it.

Sophie, still holding their Witch's Glass (she'd explained it to the others after the kids didn't answer the headphone), glared at her sister.

Tech snatched the Witch's Glass. "Then what is the problem?"

"Simple: last night, someone tried to poison us."

"WHAT?" Sophie and Tech both cried, making Lexi jump.

"One second." Wendy picked up her water, drank some, and did another spit take.

"WOULD YOU STOP THAT?" Lucy shouted.

"It's what I do when I'm shocked!"

"Well, try being scared for a change!"

"If I did, I'd upset the kids!"

"They're asleep 4 floors down in a soundproof room!"

"Exactly!"

"Guys!" Ryan stopped them.

"Sorry," both girls said.

Mars flew over to them. "Hey. Who's on the Witch's Glass?"

"Nobody!" Carmen answered instantly, hiding the mirror behind her back, "What Witch's Glass?"

"Tell me you didn't just snap, too," Kelly told her.

"I'm fine. It's him and Wendy I'm worried about."

"Let me guess," Wendy said, snatching the Witch's Glass from Tech, "Mars just flew back in from Planet Insanity!"

"Hey!" Mars landed on Carmen's shoulder and looked into the Witch's Glass, "Need I remind you, I broke up with you!" He then noticed that she was giggling. "What? _WHAT?_"

Wendy started walking back around the counter to the couch, laughing her head off. "I told you they'd catch you!" She broke down completely, throwing the Witch's Glass back to Daniella and falling onto the couch, her laughter muffled by the pillows.

"It's not that funny!" Mars snapped as Carmen pulled the Witch's Glass around and made him fly back up and land on her shoulder facing the other way.

Daniella looked in the Witch's Glass, noticed his condition, and started giggling, too. "It kind of is."

Sophie looked, too, and started laughing. "Be thankful they didn't go so far as interpret your real personality, you'd be a donkey right now!" She bent over so far down with her laughter that she almost fell on the floor.

The twins were now having a hard time holding back their own laughter.

"OK, I get it! I was caught by the Council and turned into a stupid crow! You don't have to rub it in!"

"Oh, don't worry, we won't," said Daniella, "We'll just laugh!" All 3 sisters burst out into a fit of laughter.

"That's it!" said Mars, "I'm out!"

"What?" Wendy asked, sitting up on the couch, "Need to go fly to the little pigeon's statue?" She doubled over again, grabbing her stomach.

Mars growled and flew back up to the banister.

"Alright, that was funny," said Carmen.

"OK, turning back to our problem…" Kelly said.

"OK, OK, we're done," said Wendy, "No more!"

"Good."

"Alright," said Daniella, trying her best to regain her composure, "OK. Now…what do we have so far?"

"Absolutely nothing," Ryan answered.

"Not true!" Kelly corrected, "We have…" She started thinking. "Yeah, you're about right. We've got nothing."

"Alright, that cannot be possible," said Tech, snatching back the Witch's Glass, "Any clues?"

"Arielle searched," said Kelly, "Nothing."

"Well, how about suspects?" asked Daniella, "The castle's loaded."

"Everyone we came into contact with before Kelly got her vision had a motive," Ryan explained, "There's no telling who could've done it."

"Yeah, right!" snapped Shaya, "Give some good reasons anyone here would've done something like that."

"Let's go down the list, shall we?" asked Kelly, "First of all, you're one of the main suspects."

"Can't I?" Brad asked.

"Fine."

Brad zapped the instruments and they gave off one last _DUN-DUN-DUN!_

"Why would _I_ be a suspect?" asked Shaya.

"Come on," said Kelly, "For one thing, you're married to Arielle's brother and you 2, and I quote, 'have been married a _long time_.'"

"Now, hold on a second," said Brad, "I'm not gonna let you blame my wife like that."

"You're in it, too!" Kelly snapped, "I mean, you _and_ Haven! The 2 of you, from what I hear, were supposed to be in line for the throne and then Arielle, smitten for a guy, ended up taking the throne instead. Now that she's passing you over for a second shot at the throne, why not take a snap at her successors?"

_DUN-DUN-DUN!_

"You're right, that is kind of annoying," said Brad, zapping the instruments back down, "But _I_ didn't come into contact with you 2, remember?"

"Anyone here could've zapped the poison into our drinks," said Ryan, "And Haven and Shaya _did_ come pretty close to us. And Haven is the one who mixed the drinks in the first place. Either of one of them could've been set up. And after Kelly got that vision, you seemed pretty intent on starting up those instruments to stop anyone from noticing if something had happened to us."

"Snap!" Duck's voice rang from the Witch's Glass.

"Castle steward, doing my job!" Brad snapped, "Besides, Haven and I are perfectly happy with our lives. We don't need the throne. It's not like I could have it now anyway since I'm married."

"I think we all agree that that's a stupid rule," said Kelly, "But if it helps, you're not the only other one who may be responsible. I mean, Mars cut pretty close when he swooped down on us. And he claimed it was to 'scare us out of our wits.'"

"Which, I might point out, was totally uncalled for considering what we'd been talking about at that moment," said Karen.

"Look, I hate to break it to you, but Penelope made a good point last night," said Ryan, "You 2 were with us the whole time, either one of you could've done it. I mean, Karen, you've hated us ever since we stepped foot in this castle."

"And speaking of Penelope," said Wendy, taking the Witch's Glass, "she never did like us. She's been in the Coven since we left Anasala, but she would do nothing but torture us and mock us…even as we were leaving, she said we were walking to our doom."

"Because you were!" Penelope snapped, "Acmetropolis and everyone in it is a giant death trap! Everyone knows it's the most dangerous non-hell! Why do you think the Loonatics have had to watch it for so long? And even they risked their lives doing it!"

"Penelope, relax," said Kelly, "You _might_ be in the clear. I mean, Saffron doesn't really care for the people here and she was pretty fast to snap."

"Maybe it was because of us," said Joy, "I mean, we are pretty crazy for a Coven."

"Which is exactly why you would've done it."

"What?"

"I mean, Eric does nothing but insult you. Why not try something to prove yourself by zapping some poison into the prince and princess' drinks?"

"I would never do that!"

"Well, no one seems to be wanting us to know what you saw in the plaza," said Ryan.

"It was nothing that involves you like _that_!" Amanda corrected.

"But it did involve us?" Kelly asked. No one objected. "So how do we know she didn't leave out something? Or that you told her to leave out something?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're supposed to be the leader of the Coven and no one listens to you. With something like the crime of the century penetrating the castle, who wouldn't follow your orders?"

"Yeah, right! I'm not some insane control freak who would say or do anything to get what she wants!"

"You seem the type to me," said Eric. Amanda glared at him, openmouthed. "What?"

"How do we know you didn't do it?" Amanda asked.

"Alright, now you're snapping!"

"I'm just stating the facts here. With Joy, you're worse than Saffron. She drives you bonkers till you can't stand it and you know she's pretty fond of these 2 having so much in common with this little coyote princess. How else would you get her to shut up than by destroying the only other Seer that could possibly take her place if she left?"

"Allow me repeat to repeat what dad said: SNAP!" Jack cried. Everyone heard a thud. "OW!"

"I'll tell you for the last time: shut up!" Sarah shouted.

Kelly rolled her eyes. "Our family's messed up enough without Skeeter and the others."

"You said it," said Ryan.

"I can see why you came over here," said Amanda.

"Trust me, it's not that different."

"Certainly not anymore," said Wendy.

"Maybe you can cast some sort of truth spell to get your suspects to tell you what really happened," suggested Nadine.

"Are you kidding?" Carmen cried, "They're not ready for a spell like that! We're still on wall-walking! Remedial wall-walking!"

"Yeah, there was an incident—" Kelly started.

"In fact, stuck-in-the-wall is more like it."

"I can understand that," said Sophie, "But maybe you should've started with something a little more…fundamental."

"What's more basic than walking through walls?" asked Wendy.

Sophie thought about that. "Well, nothing, really, but—"

"OK, can we focus on the issue at hand here? Thank you!" Kelly yelled.

"Wait a minute!" Ryan realized, "That's it! Walking through walls! I can zap myself through the wall and go get someone back here to cast a truth spell on the room!" He prepared for it and raced towards the wall…

Their family could just barely hear a large _THUD!_

Ryan fainted.

"Yeah, spell lock," Arielle explained, "No one can get out of here by magic or manually until we know, as Kelly said it, 'whodunit.' And even if you had gotten the spell right, your magic block would've made you hit the wall and bounce right back with a pineapple."

Ryan slowly got up, his ears falling over his eyes, and glared at her. "You couldn't have warned me before I started running?" He fell back down.

"That's it, we're hanging up," said Wendy, zapping the Witch's Glass off before anyone could object.

"Wait," said Daniella, "That's it! Ryan said he could go get someone back there to cast a spell on the room. We can zap ourselves over there and find Obsidian!"

"Obsidian?" Tech asked.

"Yeah, she's like the town fortuneteller. She's a very old and powerful Witch, the only one besides Arielle to claim the throne and survive Eronor's attack. All we have to do is get her to cast the spell and then _BOOM!_ The attacker admits what they did and they can all leave! The kids are safe!"

"Brilliant, Danni!" Sophie cried, "Come on! We have to go now!" She led the group down the stairs.

"Wait!" Rev stopped them. "We-need-a-signal-in-case-the-baby-starts-coming!"

Daniella thought about this. "Well, how about 'AH! THE BABY'S COMING!'"

"Nah-too-obvious. OH! How-about-'Peaches'?"

Daniella stared at him. "'Peaches'? Seriously?"

"Yeah-I-always-liked-peaches-I-mean-they-taste-so-good-and-my-cousin—"

"Yeah, I think we get it," Daniella said, pulling him off.

"Why do we have to go immediately?" asked Robert, "If Arielle has them all sustained, shouldn't they be safe for pretty much the rest of the week?"

"Actually, we've been trying to tell you—" Sophie started as Daniella opened the door. She stopped when she saw storm clouds emerging. From them emerged bolts of clouded magic that zoomed to the ground and turned into Golems.

"Yeah, we probably should've seen that one coming," Daniella said.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

A stone Golem pounded Tech into a wall. He got up, his eyes glowing green as he regenerated, and pounced on it. He kicked it in the head and it fell to the ground. He stood on the pile of rubble that had been alive. "One word: payback." Suddenly, 3 rocks reformed into an arm and grabbed Tech's leg yanking him down. "Alright, it may be 2 words, but that's TOTALLY debatable!" He jumped up and kept fighting.

"Alright," Ace said, "I hate to break a promise, Lex, but I think we may have to fight these guys."

Lexi crouched down into a battle stance and her eyes started glow pink. "I agree, Ace. Let's bring the heat."

His eyes glowing yellow, Ace pulled out the Guardian Strike Sword. "Then let's get fighting! Guardian Strike Sword, attack!" He and Lexi jumped into the fight.

While the triplets started zapping the creatures and Slam went into spin cycle and Duck began to throw eggs, the kids changed into their uniforms and started attacking. Nadine stood back-to-back with Duck and the 2 began to throw fireballs/fire-eggs (except with fire Golems, then Duck threw water eggs). Benny used his flexibility to trip up all the stone Golems and make them fall apart, letting Lexi brain-blast the pieces far apart enough that they couldn't remake. Lucy got into a plant fight with the earth Golems. Robert threw all competing elements at individual Golems, careful not to wear out his power at a single one. Jack began to throw everything he could and stun every Golem he couldn't attack. Sarah screamed every Golem in sight to pieces. Michael turned into an elephant and began to trample a lot of the Golems.

Tech kicked another stone Golem back. Before he could find a way to attack another, a fire Golem came up from behind him and scorched his tail. He jumped up and landed on the sidewalk. He shook himself off. Someone came up and helped him up. "Oh, thanks, I—oh, it's you." It was Austin Wolfe. "What do you want?"

Austin looked behind him and his eyes widened. "Uh, I have to tell you something."

"Oh, great. Every time _you_ 'have to tell us something', it's bad news somehow. Because it's always about someone, something, or even some_where_ being in danger. Well, less than an hour/day ago, my eldest daughter and son, who are now trapped in another dimension, were almost poisoned. And now that we try to help them, we end up in a battle against a bunch of Golems and the 9 of us aren't supposed to be fighting. I don't think I can take anymore bad news!"

"Well, then, good news."

"Oh, good. What?"

"Your tail's on fire."

Tech's eyes widened. He looked and saw that his tail was flaming. "YOW!" Before he could react further, he was bombarded by a wave of water. "Thanks, Duck."

Duck took his hand away from the fire hydrant and forced out a nervous smile.

Meanwhile, Daniella worked her way to the sidelines and zapped away all the Golems that came close to her. Suddenly, she took a quick gasp of breath and leaned back against a wall. "Uh oh. Oh no. Not now! REV!"

Rev stopped running and joined the rest of the gang across the way from Daniella and her cries.

"Uh…ORANGES! COCONUTS! NECTARINES? TANGELOs?"

"What's up with her?" asked Austin.

"KIWI? Uh…" Daniella thought it out. "Uh…PEACHES!"

"Peaches?" Rev asked himself, "OH! THE-BABY'S-COMING! I'm-not-ready! This-is-bad-very-bad-very-very-very-very-extremely-b—"

"REV!" Ace stopped him, "Quit ranting and get over there!"

Rev nodded and raced over to his in-labor wife. As soon as a group of Golems noticed that they were occupied, they started to come at the 2. Rev noticed the movement on his GPS and glared at them. "Get-back!" He zoomed in a semi-circle around Daniella, forming a sort of shield that knocked them back. He stopped, his eyes glowing red, and sped back over to Daniella as another contraction started to settle.

The group continued to fight. They kept fighting until 11:00. It was 4 hours of battle (in more ways than one) for them, but 4 days of investigating for Kelly and Ryan…

_"Friday" in Anasala…_

_After sunset…_

Kelly and Ryan dropped onto the bed Carmen had zapped up. They had made no progress since "Monday" (Saffron was still the only one with Witch's Snap and she'd almost cleared up).

"I can't believe it," said Kelly, "We've almost literally turned this place upside-down looking for some hint of who could've been the crook. And what do we got? No clues, no evidence, no proof, no nothing!" She took in a deep breath. "Alright, let's think about this. Maybe there's some way we can eliminate some suspects. Who was first to come into contact with us after we got the drinks?"

"That'd be us," said Carmen.

"And you're sure we're suspects?" asked Karen.

"At least, you are," said Ryan, "I mean, it could've been possible. When Mars swooped in, we landed on you."

_"Gangway!" Mars zoomed over them, cutting dangerously close to their heads._

_Ryan fell backwards into Carmen's arms and Kelly just barely avoiding falling on Karen. __**Karen pointed at them discreetly, silently zapping some poison into the goblets.**__ Kelly and Ryan stood back up, being careful not to drop the goblets._

"It's still a possibility," said Kelly, "What about Mars?"

_"Gangway!" Mars zoomed over them, cutting dangerously close to their heads. __**As he swooped in too fast for anyone to see a wing-beat, he opened a bottle he carried in his claws and poured it into Kelly and Ryan's drinks and then dropped it on the floor and let it roll under the table where no one would notice it.**__ He sped up to the banister near the ceiling as Kelly and Ryan stood up._

"Again, still possible," said Ryan.

"If I'd known playfulness like that was going to get me in danger of spending more years in feathers," Mars said from his banister, "I would've left you alone."

"You did say you were gonna destroy us all," said Kelly.

"Yes, after I got my magic back. I never thought of doing it when I was still incarcerated."

Kelly rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"What about me?" asked Shaya, "When could I have done something against you?"

Kelly looked at her.

_"Can't you wait till the banquet actually starts to gulp down your juice?" asked Karen._

_Shaya waved her hand at them. __**In doing so, she zapped some poison into the drinks Ryan and Kelly carried.**__ She stopped drinking._

"I mean, any gesture can be a spell down here," said Kelly.

"Oh, that is…" Shaya thought about that. "…probably true."

"Or maybe Brad did it by himself," suggested Ryan.

_**Brad saw Kelly getting a vision. He seized the moment and zapped some poison into her drink and her brother's. **__He zapped the instruments when Kelly's vision faded and they drowned out her voice of warning with their music._

"Hold it, you skipped a few," said Kelly, "What about the Coven here?"

_"You know," Saffron told Kelly and Ryan, "usually we just walk into the kitchen and take what we want when we're hungry. When we do have a banquet like this, which is usually on rare and/or special occasions, it's mainly a normal sit-down of some sort. But for you guys she went all-out." She propped her elbow on the table and rested her head in her hand. __**As she did, she waved her finger inconspicuously and zapped some poison into their drinks.**__ "I can't imagine why."_

_Or…_

_Penelope scoffed and raised her hand__**, waving it briefly enough as to zap some poison into Kelly and Ryan's drinks**__. "Whatever you say."_

_Or…_

_Amanda glared at Penelope. "Penelope, you need some work." She rubbed her temple as if she had a headache__**, twitching her finger enough to zap some poison into Kelly and Ryan's drinks**__. "And now I do."_

_Or…_

_"You want me to read your mind?" Joy asked Kelly, "I've been trying to work on spells like that."_

_"Sure." Kelly held out her hand._

_Joy closed her eyes and began to trace Kelly's hand with her forefinger. __**As she traced Kelly's hand, Kelly and Ryan's drinks stirred as through her finger were stirring in the poison being zapped in. **__"You're thinking of…pickles."_

_Or…_

_Eric slowly turned to glare at Joy. "Joy, how many times do I have to tell you?" He raised a finger __**and waved it so fast that no one would notice him zapping poison into Kelly and Ryan's drinks**__. "1: Keep your mind clear when you're doing spells like that."_

"All possibilities," said Ryan.

"That just leaves Haven," Kelly said.

_**Before people started coming into the banquet hall, Haven took out a bottle of poison and poured it into 2 goblets that sat right next to each other. When Kelly and Ryan began to approach the floating tray, she peeked through the door to the kitchen and zapped the tray so that it would turn and Kelly and Ryan would pick the 2 poisoned goblets.**_

_Or…_

_Haven appeared behind them. "Ahem." They all turned to look at her. "If you're done…" She clapped her hands and the food began to come in and serve itself. __**While everyone was looking at that, she zapped Kelly and Ryan's drinks to poison them. **__"Made it all myself."_

"And there are 2 ways she could've done it," Kelly said, "So there's no telling with her."

"This is ridiculous," said Ryan, "There has to be something here that can tell us something about what happened. Some sort of…fingerprints or…"

"If they zapped the poison in," said Karen, "it would be a magic fingerprint. And when Arielle inspected the goblets, she said she couldn't find anything, so it must have been too common or not there."

Kelly then thought of something. "Magic fingerprint…That's it! Every possible way they could've poisoned our drinks in particular involved them zapping the goblets…except Mars. If they did, their CREST would be on the goblets or revealed through a spell! And if there isn't one, then Mars did it!"

"Kelly, that's brilliant!" Arielle said, "Why didn't one of us think of that 4 days ago?" She waved her hand over the goblets as Kelly raced over there to test her theory. When Arielle stopped casting her spell, Kelly grabbed the goblets and investigated them. Finally, she found a symbol hear the bottom of the goblets. "AHA! Gotcha!" She investigated the symbol. "Wait, that can't be right…this looks like Arielle's crest."

"What?" Ryan ran over there. "Well, maybe it appeared when she cast her spell to reveal the crest…" He then examined it. "Wait a minute…" He held up the symbol to where he saw it right next to the symbol imprinted on the wall. "The star on the wall is surrounded by 5 smaller stars. The star on the goblets is surrounded by 3."

Arielle gasped. "It can't be…" She turned to her little sister. "Haven…" Everyone looked at the sisters in silent shock.

"Are you sure you're not mistaken?" asked Kelly, "Like if one of the stars is off by a tip or—"

Arielle snatched one of the goblets and looked at the symbol. "No… My crest has 5 small stars, Brad's has 4, and Haven's has 3. No one else in the realm has a similar symbol. Haven did this."

Haven folded her arms, sighed, and looked at her sister. "Busted."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Haven, tell me you didn't do this," said Arielle.

"I will but you won't believe me," Haven said, "'Cause it isn't true. 'Cause I did do it. No use denying it now. Proof's in your hand."

Arielle dropped the goblet on the floor.

"Thing about magic: pretty mess-free. Doesn't really leave any clues. Except to the common Witch. Didn't think you'd think about something like the crest. I mean, 'duh' moment for the day. No idea why I didn't realize that was gonna come from mixing the poison into the kids' drinks and fixing the tray."

"So everyone else was telling the truth," said Kelly.

"Oh, totally. Mars is a loony, Saffron is way too touchy, Karen is a bit over-cranky, and Brad has horrible timing with the music. Or incredible timing if you look at it my way."

"Confession time," said Ryan, "Here's your chance out."

"No, here's your chance out," said Amanda, preparing to open the doors, "If these open, we know it was Haven. If not, she's clean." She hesitated and finally pushed the door… It opened. She turned back to Haven. They got her.

Brad looked at his sister. "Haven, you didn't."

"What?" Haven asked, glaring at her brother, "You trusted me? No, you didn't. You never did. NONE OF YOU! My whole life I did nothing but dream about taking the throne. I never once fell in love, I got straight A's at Witch U…and then my own sister snatches it from under me, even though she had a fiancée. So Brad gets married and I'm stuck as what? The alternate? The advisor? No! I'm a cook! Where does that put me? What does that make me? Nothing but the queen's baby sister."

"Only the firstborn can take the throne, Haven, and you knew that," Arielle said.

"Unless, of course, the firstborn is 'a tampered Witch.' You had a boyfriend, Brad had a girlfriend, I was a virgin my whole life! Where's the justice in that? It was supposed to be me! And now you and your boy finally snap and you decided to hand over the throne. Do you choose your own sister? No, you went with some stupid Halflings! I'm not gonna stand for that. What other option do I have than to get rid of them and make you finally see what's right in front of you? I am the rightful queen of Anasala and NO ONE is taking that away from me!" She took out her wand. "_I'm the one who deserves the crown, take everyone else and knock them down!_" She waved her wand at them and everyone was knocked into the walls. While they were recovering, she raced out of the room through the open doors and made a run for it.

Kelly was the first one up. She ran out of the room and chased after Haven. Ryan followed. Then Mars and Arielle.

"Stay here!" Arielle called to everyone else, "We'll take care of this!" Before anyone could object, she zapped the doors closed again.

"Wait!" Amanda started after them. She ran up to the doors but didn't get through them before they closed.

Haven ran past Jupiter's hall. As she kept running, she looked back and saw Mars following closely behind, followed by Kelly, Ryan, and Arielle. She started to run faster.

Kelly stopped at the hall as Jupiter approached her. "Jupiter."

"What's going on? Where were you?"

"In the banquet hall."

"For 4 days?"

"Long story. Long story short: Haven, Arielle's sister, tried to kill me and my brother and now we're chasing her."

"I'll help."

"You don't have to—"

"But I want to."

Kelly smiled. "Thanks."

"You better keep going."

Kelly nodded and ran.

Jupiter stared after. "No idea…" She snapped her fingers and disappeared.

_Back in Acmetropolis…_

Daniella finally stopped screaming.

Rev stopped running in front of her.

"Rev…"

Rev turned around and saw her holding a tiny baby roadrunner. He smiled.

Daniella smiled back. Then stopped smiling. "Look out!"

Rev whirled around and kicked an oncoming wind Golem (which was no easy feat without super speed, I might add; luckily, he did have super speed). "So-a-name…it's-a-girl-right?" Daniella nodded. "How-about-Rebecca?"

Daniella thought about it. "Too simple for a Witch. Needs a spin of a touch…2 Ks instead of C's?"

"Perfect."

Daniella looked at the clock and stopped smiling. 11:55. It was almost the end of the year…

The rest of the group raced up.

"Aunt Danni! Uncle Rev!" Sarah cried, "I think the Golems…oh…"

Daniella smiled as Rev helped her stand up. "Named her Rebekka, but that's a story for later. We need to get Kelly and Ryan back here now!"

"I know their week's almost out," said Nadine, "But Arielle's with them, so they should be safe!"

"It's not that!"

"Then what's wrong?"

_Back in Anasala…_

When her 4 pursuers were far enough behind, Haven turned 2 corners and hid in a panel. "OK, need a spell to go faster…oh! The Run-a-Marathon spell!" She pulled her wand back out. "_Skip it, jump it, hippity-hop, run 22.6 miles then stop!_" She zapped her feet, hid her wand, and ran for it. Before even Rev could've taken a step, she was in the courtyard outside the door. "Love that spell. And you don't get motion sickness 'cause it only affects your feet." Suddenly, she heard approaching screaming. She dared to look up and Kelly and Ryan dropped on her.

"Alright, that's starting to get annoying," Kelly told her brother.

Suddenly, the doors to the castle opened and out came Arielle and Mars.

Haven started to run again but Kelly zapped the ground in front of her and she tripped…on a pineapple.

"Magic block came in handy," said Kelly.

Haven started to get up and run.

Jupiter appeared behind a nearby tree and looked at Haven. She remembered how Kelly had said she'd try her and her brother and became angry.

Haven tripped again. She gave up and turned back to them. "Arielle, you can't punish your sister like this, can you?"

"Oh, don't worry. You'll only be living without magic for 2 years."

Haven scoffed. "No big deal."

"2 _human_ years."

Haven stared at her. "That's 2 decades! I can't survive that long without magic!"

"You can and you will. Or I'll turn you in to the Council and give Mars here a little blonde raven friend."

"Crow!" Mars snapped.

"Whatever!" Arielle snapped back.

"Alright, fine," Haven said, sitting up on the ground, "Turn me in. Take my magic. It's not gonna help your little mortal friends."

Kelly and Ryan realized that meant their family.

"What'd you do?" Kelly asked.

"Little psychic doesn't know? I sent an army of Golems after them. By now, at least one of them should be dead."

Kelly whirled around to face Arielle. "We have to get home."

Arielle looked at the horizon to see the sun setting. She sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid you're too late."

"We may still be able to save them!"

"I know that, but you can't open the portal."

_Back in Acmetropolis…_

Sarah looked at the raging storm headed for them. "Why can't Kelly and Ryan come home?"

"We've been trying to tell you guys," Daniella explained, wrapping a blanket around baby Rebekka, "Ever since Eronor's attack, the Council has only allowed each Witch or Warlock a round-trip ticket once a year—Anasalan or earthen, whichever passes first. If you don't use your return portion of the trip before one ends, your stuck until another passes in the dimension you came from. And it's past midnight on New Year's Eve."

Sarah looked at the clock and saw it chime midnight. Daniella was right. Her brother and sister were stuck.

"There's gotta be some way we can get them back!" Tech cried.

"Well, how have you been communicating with them?" asked Austin.

"The headphones and Witch's Glass!" Lucy cried.

Wendy summoned the Witch's Glass from the tower. "Oh, please let them be OK!"

_Back in Anasala…_

Haven had been taken care of and now Kelly was pacing as she ranted to Ryan and everyone else.

"I can't believe we're stuck here!" Kelly ranted, "We can't just be stuck _here_!"

"I'm sorry, kiddo, but that's how this works," said Karen, "You can't go home now."

"We have to!" Kelly said, holding back the tears, "Our family's in trouble!"

"There has to be something we can do," Ryan said.

"Well, you could—" Carmen started, "No. But, maybe—uh-uh. Or how 'bout—girl, I got nothing!" Suddenly, she felt a vibrating in her pocket. She gasped. "The Witch's Glass!" She pulled it out and answered. "Wendy!"

Kelly snatched it. "Aunt Wendy! Please tell me you're OK!"

"We're fine! We were worried about you!"

"Oh, good! 'Cause we're good, really! Yeah, all except for the fact that we're stuck in your crazy homeland for the NEXT 10 YEARS!"

"Yeah, we were kind of wondering about that one," said Wendy.

Sarah snatched the Witch's Glass.

Kelly saw her sister on the line and left the room, Ryan following. "Sarah, listen…we're gonna open the portal."

"We can't, Kelly," Sarah said.

"We have to try."

"It's against the rules!" Daniella snapped.

"Then we'll have to work our way around the rules. Acmetropolis is in trouble here."

Daniella looked at her sisters. She was torn. In the end, she realized it was all about her family's safety. She nodded.

Sarah turned to look at Austin, but he was gone. He'd run off when Kelly had answered the Witch's Glass. She half-smiled. She looked back into the Witch's Glass and smiled.

Daniella handed Rebekka to Rev. "Gonna need all the help we can get." She joined hands with her sisters. Sarah, Michael, Robert, and finally Jack joined in.

Kelly and Ryan looked at each other and joined hands. They closed their eyes and prepared to launch the spell… "_A new era begun, boundaries to drown, new life for both Witch and mortal, magic won't decide what's best for all people, but we decide it's time to open the portal!_" Suddenly, a bright white light (triple rhyme was not intended) appeared and sucked them in.

The others opened their eyes after waiting in anticipation.

"Did it work?" asked Jack.

Suddenly, they heard distant screaming getting closer. They all slowly looked up and saw the bright white light reappear and let Kelly and Ryan drop on top of the circle of Witches.

Ryan got up first. It took him a few seconds, but he finally regained his balance. "Alright, now that's just plain getting old."

Kelly slowly stood up. "I am _not_ OK." She fell over again. Sarah helped her up.

Sophie grabbed her children and hugged them tightly. "Oh, I thought I'd lost you!"

"Mom…choking…not breathing…" Ryan managed to get out.

Sophie let go. "Heh…sorry."

"That was a close one," said Kelly, "Boy, is that a story."

"A story we should probably also tell to the others back at the castle," said Ryan, "It's already been an hour for them!"

"Oh, right!" Kelly prepared to do the spell again. "You know, I would invite the rest of you, but I'm a bit concerned about turning you into pineapples."

"Magic block?" asked Wendy.

"Totally."

"Oh, then we're safe. If it'd lasted all week, it'd be over by now."

"Right." Kelly zapped them back.

The group gathered in the foyer of the castle.

"Did you find them?" Carmen asked her sister.

"No," Karen answered, her hands on her hips, "I wonder where those little twerps scampered off to."

As soon as she said it, they started to hear screaming in the distance.

"Yeah, I totally just jinxed us."

Before anyone could ask what she meant, the gang fell through a portal and landed on them all.

Wendy got up. "You guys were right, that is annoying."

Penelope looked at them. "But…what…and…you and…huh?"

"Yeah, I don't think we really got it either," said Kelly.

Carmen smiled and got up. "You guys totally just figured your way around the rules."

"Yeah, totally."

"You permanently opened the portal?" Arielle asked.

"You're not mad, are you?"

"Oh, I'm not. You did for the right reasons." She smiled at their family. "However, the Council is not gonna be happy about this."

"Yeah, should've seen that one coming."

"But we can worry about them later. You guys need to save your world and prepare for a coronation tomorrow."

Sarah and Kelly hugged. Nadine looked at them and they pulled her in.

"Oh!" Arielle started to pull off the bracelet she was wearing. "Sophie, here's your bracelet back."

Sophie smiled and took it. "Finally. After 21 years, you're lucky you're the queen. Otherwise, I'd be zapping you right now for taking it."

Arielle smiled.

"She stole it?" asked Lucy.

"What?" Arielle asked, "No. It's just that the bracelet used to be a clouded leopard and I was always a klutz in high school so she was worried I might break it."

Kelly looked at her mom. "Skeeter?"

"Yes," the triplets and Arielle all said.

"Enough said."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

_The next day…_

_In Anasala…_

"Wow," said Wendy. She clapped her hands together. "Well, maybe it could still work."

Ryan looked at her. He was stuck in a robe-like, Shakespearean-era costume. "In what world?" He zapped it off and threw it on the ground, trading it for his Loonakids uniform. "I'm starting to think this is payback for calling Karen a mindless hamster."

"You'd be surprised how many Witches get offended by that insult," said Daniella.

"Who wouldn't get offended by that insult?" asked Wendy, not noticing Sarah looking over her brother's shoulder and widening her eyes, "I mean, just plain calling them mindless is gonna effect the—" She cut herself off when she saw everyone else but Ryan was looking in awe at something behind him. She and Ryan both turned to look and saw Kelly standing there in a magnificent white gown.

"See?" Ryan said, "_Carmen_ has no problem with _Kelly_!"

Kelly smiled and walked closer. "Totally beats that first dress they gave me, huh?"

Sophie smiled. "So, Kelly, when are we gonna be meeting that friend you and Ryan were talking about?"

Jupiter came up behind Kelly. "Boo!"

Kelly shrieked and whirled around. "Jupiter! What are you doing out of the hall?"

"I'm getting out like you said."

"Oh, I did say that, didn't I?"

"You also said you'd introduce me to your family."

"Oh, they're right here!"

"Doesn't seem that crazy to me," said Wendy.

Jupiter pointed at Kelly.

"Right."

Jupiter smiled.

"Right," said Kelly, "Uh…Ace and Lexi Bunny and their kids, Nadine, Benny, and Lucy; Danger and Wendy Duck and their son, Jack; Rev and Daniella Runner and their son, Robert; and my mom, dad, and siblings, Ryan, Sarah, and Michael."

"Slightly confusing."

"You have no idea."

Jupiter smiled again.

"Well, better go help Brad and Shaya with crowd control," Ryan said, taking the rest of them off.

When they were all gone, Kelly faced Jupiter. "So how do I look?"

"Like a princess," Jupiter answered, smiling.

Kelly stopped smiling. "I kind of already am a princess."

Jupiter stopped smiling, too. "Let me rephrase that: like a queen. Or better yet, like an angel."

Kelly suddenly got an urge to look at herself and looked in the mirror on the wall. She saw that her dress was sparkling gold and she had a golden halo and wings. She scoffed. "Very funny." Jupiter smiled back and waved her hand, disbanding the illusion. Kelly folded her arms. "Why do you do that?"

Jupiter half-smiled. "Do what?"

"You do a spell for every little thing. The lights exploding, what you just did with my dress…it's like you do a spell every single time your emotions cha—" She then remembered what she'd read in the "Big Book of Spells"… "You have a kid, don't you?"

Jupiter slowly stopped smiling entirely. "How do you know about that?"

"Well…I read that if a Witch gave birth before she was tortured—"

"Alabaster…my son…no one knew about him. Married underage with a child behind everyone's backs." She started crying. "Then Mars came…tried to kill us…I had to hide him." Kelly gave her a sympathetic look. "I cast a spell on him. In 5 more years, he'll reappear in your world. I have to get out of here and find him when he does before something happens."

"That's why you need a Witch to break your delirium…so you can leave this state and search for your son."

Jupiter wiped away her tears and nodded. "Yeah."

Kelly got an idea. _Oh…come on…please let my powers work right this time… _She focused and let the vibes flow and knew what would break her. She smiled. "I think I have an idea. Get in that room!" Jupiter nodded and hid in the nearby empty bedroom. Kelly turned around. "Hey, Mars!"

Mars flew in and landed on the floor in front of her. "What do you want?"

"I think you need to meet someone." She opened a door.

Mars sighed and stepped through the door. "This better be good—OH BOY!"

"Oh, so you do remember Jupiter?" Kelly asked.

"Mars…" Jupiter looked at the crow.

Mars looked at Kelly. "Hey, don't lock me in a room with her!"

Kelly looked thoughtful for a second. "Hmm, didn't think of that. Much better idea than just closing the door. Buh-bye!" She closed and locked the door.

"Wait!" Mars called.

Kelly zapped the door shut, making sure only Jupiter could open it. "This ought to be good."

_Meanwhile…_

Haven was in the dungeon. _My own sister…I should've gone after her instead… _She then realized something. _Maybe I still can… _She looked through the bars of her cell and into the room. A safe hidden in the paneling held a jar containing all magic suspended by the Council. If she could get out and find and open that safe, she could take her magic back. She started plotting. There had to be some way she could squeeze through the bars…wait a minute…squeeze through the bars… She braced herself. The bars had to be at least 5 inches apart, it was gonna be a tight fit without magic. She got up from the cot and walked over to the bars that appeared to be farthest apart. She stuck her arm through the bars and pushed the bars farther back to squeeze through. Finally, she was out. She massaged herself. _Huh, that was easy. _She started to walk off but stopped. _A little too easy… _Suddenly, she was hit with a surge of energy. No wonder it was so easy to get out, anyone who did would be hit with a weakening spell and forced back in! She started to run off. When she was struck again, she felt herself being pulled back. She fought the force off and ran up to the wall the safe was on. Continuing to fight against the energy coming against her, she finally found the safe. She opened it but was hit with a stronger energy blast and fell to the ground. She slowly fought her way up and took the jar from the safe. Before another energy surge could hit her, she took the cork from the jar's neck and let out enough energy to shut down the spell. All of the original energy ran back into the jar and took the energy from the energy surges with it. Haven sucked in some of the energy and put the cork back on the bottleneck. She smiled. "That's better."

_Back in the courtyard…_

_2 hours later…_

Kelly and Ryan were back with the group, still getting ready for the coronation.

Suddenly, Jupiter ran up. "Kelly!" Kelly faced her. "Thank you so much for letting me get that out of my system! It's been bugging me for years!"

Kelly smiled. "That bad?"

"Are you kidding? I have been holding it in for 5 years and it felt amazing to just take it out on him for 2 hours!"

Ryan smiled. "Explanation?"

"Long story," Kelly told her brother.

"I think we have time."

Kelly looked around. Everyone else was out there, but no one was paying attention to them. "OK then. Wait, first, where's Mars?"

Jupiter slowly turned around to reveal that Mars was coming out of the castle, limping and constantly blinking and barely moving one wing. He coughed and fell onto a stair.

Kelly held back a giggle. "Alright, you are great."

Jupiter smiled.

"Alright," said Kelly, turning back to her family, "See, what happened was—"

Before she could start… _BOOM! _Everyone turned to see that a magic blast had erupted from the castle and now all the windows and doors were closing and locking by themselves. Someone had penetrated the castle's defenses!

Kelly and Ryan ran for the door.

"Wait!" Karen and Carmen both tried to stop them.

Before they could, Kelly and Ryan slammed into the magically sealed doors and bouncing off. They barely avoided falling down the stairs.

"The old magic lock trick," said Karen.

"Yeah, works on us every time," said Carmen.

Karen looked at her sister. "Well, it's worked on you and Wendy—"

"Hey, I never was as bad as you 2!" Wendy snapped.

"Are you kidding me? You totally—"

"NOW IS NOT THE TIME!" Kelly and Ryan both snapped.

Amanda tried to open one of the windows. "Oh no. Haven must have gotten out and gotten her magic back."

Arielle came up. "And in doing so, she locked us out of the castle. It can only be opened from the inside now!"

_DING!_ Kelly got an idea. "From the inside, you say?" She looked at Robert, who smiled back.

"Your magic can't penetrate a spell like this," Penelope corrected.

"Now who said anything about using magic?" Robert asked. He started to back up. "Give me some space, I may need a running start." They all complied and made a path for him. He backed up to the fountain. "Brace yourselves. I'm going in." He ran for it…and rebounded off the doors. He clutched his beak in pain.

Daniella ran up to her son. "I guess magic blood is enough."

"I hate being a Warlock!"

Duck realized something. "Wait a minute! I'm a mortal!" Duck ran up to them. "Brace yourselves, _I'm_ going in!" He quacked. He reappeared on the other side of the door. "Yes! It worked!" He ran over to the door. "Alright, just gotta open this…" He touched the doorknob and was knocked back by a surge of energy.

_"I'm the rightful queen of Anasala and no one is taking that away from me!"_

"OK, I get it!" Duck got up from the floor and got an idea. "Aha!" He pulled up a fire egg. "Steady…and fire! Ha, sometimes I even humor myself." He threw the egg at the doors, blasting the knobs off from both sides before kicking the doors open.

"Nice work, Duck!" Kelly commented. She ran in. "Alright, now we just have to find her…"

Joy walked in last. Suddenly, a dark force overcame her. She stepped back a few steps. Suddenly, it pushed her forward and made her scream.

Everyone faced her.

Amanda ran up to her. "What's wrong?"

"It's Haven." Joy bent her head back and groaned. "She's in the North Tower…"

Kelly didn't need to hear anymore. She ran for it.

"Kelly, wait!" Sophie called after her daughter. She raced after her, everyone else but Amanda and Joy following.

Kelly raced to the tower and up a staircase.

"Kelly!" Ryan stopped his sister.

She whirled around to face him. "We have to do something to stop her, Rye!"

"By doing what?"

"We have to at least try here! Lives are in danger!"

Suddenly, they were all being pulled as the staircase moved.

"What's happening?" asked Lexi.

"The staircases in the towers change," Carmen explained, "But we still have a problem here!"

"A problem we need to resolve," said Jupiter, "Which means Kelly needs to do something."

"Thank you!" Kelly said as the staircase settled, "I've gotta do something!" She kept running.

Ryan grabbed her arm to stop her. "No, you're not."

"Ryan—"

"Not without us."

Kelly looked at her brother and smiled. They nodded at each other and kept going.

Haven was just on the top staircase. She heard everything. She growled at them and reached the top of the tower. She walked onto the roof of the tower. She looked at the bottleneck jar. "I can't believe it. I'm holding, in the palm of my hand, the jar that contains the essence of the magic of every punished Witch and Warlock in Anasala _and_ Acmetropolis. With this much power…I'll be capable of so much more than just the queen of Anasala." She prepared to open the jar to suck in more power when…

"Haven!"

Haven whirled around to see the Loonakids (not in their uniforms, I might point out) and the Loonatics and Arielle and her court (minus Amanda and Joy still, but plus Jupiter and Mars) standing there ready to fight her. "Oh, look, the gang's all here. I guess you managed to open the portal."

"Permanently, thank you," said Kelly, "You gotta at least give the 'Halflings' credit for that."

Arielle stepped forward. "Listen, Haven. There's dark magic in that jar. If you get your hands on it—"

"Don't you remember, sis? I already did."

Arielle looked at her sister in confusion.

*** Flashback ***

Haven was a lot younger, as were Arielle and Brad. Arielle had recently been offered to take the throne and Haven was very happy for her sister. She'd wanted the throne herself but at least someone in the family got to it.

While the family was touring the castle, they stopped in one hallway. Haven was tired and bored and had nothing to do while the others were talking, so she looked around the hall and noticed one door they hadn't opened. She walked over there when no one was looking and zapped it. The door showed a sign that said "dungeon." She looked back at her family. Still distracted. She opened the door and walked in. She looked around. It seemed fairly empty. She put herself against the wall as she started to sneak around a corner and stopped when she felt something strange on the wall… She looked and saw a safe hidden in the wood paneling. _I don't think that's supposed to be there…_ She looked back into the hallway. Her family was still distracted. She slowly and quietly began to figure out the combination to open the safe. Finally, she opened it. She half-smiled, just out of curiosity and opened the door to reveal a jar. _That's it? A stupid jar?_ She pulled out the jar and opened it. Suddenly, she was bombarded by a dark, mystical energy. She was pushed back several steps by the force of it. She closed the jar again and put it back. She closed the door and re-locked it. Suddenly, the energy overcame her. As she walked back into the hallway, she looked long and hard at her sister. As she closed the door, she thought…what right did her sister have to take her dream from her? She had been planning for years to take the throne and her own sister stole right from under her? No! She wouldn't stand for it! She stormed over there.

"So if Arielle takes the throne," her mom said, "then Brad can be the steward, Shaya can be the lady-in-waiting when and if they get married, and Haven can…"

"Be the cook!" Arielle exclaimed, "They did say they needed one and she always has been good at cooking."

"Not a bad idea, Arielle."

Haven stared at them, angrily. First, they give the throne away to someone who was in love, then they make her a dumb old cook?

Her mom looked at her and she looked normal. "What do you say, Haven? Sounds good?"

Haven smiled. "Totally." As soon as they looked away, she looked at her sister, clenching her fists in an attempt to keep herself from zapping her to the other side of the planet…she had to do something… So decades later, when Arielle and her fiancée decided to leave the throne, she began to plot against her successors… Curiosity killed the cook.

*** End Flashback ***

Arielle was shocked. So that's what had happened to her sister to make her so evil? And taking away her magic hadn't fixed it? If she'd been exposed to dark magic, wouldn't the 2 magicks have blended inside her and the evil have been sucked right out when she took her magic? What had happened to make the evil stay? "That can't be right…"

"Believe it. It's what happened."

"No, I mean it can't be right because you wouldn't still be evil if it were. The dark magic should've blended with _your_ magic and left you when I took _your_ magic."

_Now why does that sound familiar? _Tech pondered. He than remembered. _The biotech parasite! _"That's just it! The 2 magicks _did_ blend! And when they did, it stuck to her _soul_, not her _mind_! _Her_ magic left her, but the dark magic turned her into a dark sorceress and it's not leaving now until it wants to leave!"

"Wow, the _mortal_ actually got it," said Haven.

"So did the crow!" Mars called, racing over to her, "What do you say we team up?"

"Mars!" Karen snapped, "You'll only get stuck as a bird that much longer!"

"Not if we out-power you!" Mars snapped back. He turned back to Haven. "Think about it! If you give me my power back and turn me back to normal, the 2 of us together would be unbeatable!"

Haven looked at the jar and thought about it. Slowly, she started to smile. "Or…"

"'Or'?"

"Or I could have all the power!" She held up the jar, ready to open it and suck in everything.

"Now wait a minute—"

"You can't stop me. You're just a stupid bird. And you will be for the next…what, 700 years? Now if I take all the power and don't bother with a 'partner' who's likely to turn on me, _I'll_ be unbeatable and finally get the crown like I've wanted since…well, before I could talk basically."

Mars glared at her. "Or…"

"'Or'?"

"Or I could take advantage of being 'just a stupid bird' and peck your eyes out!" He started pecking her toes.

"Ow!" She zapped him back into Kelly, who knocked over Ryan in turn.

Jupiter zapped Haven back to stop her from attacking while she helped Kelly but underestimated her newly-reawakened strength and in the process, knocked her back far enough to make her hit the wall and involuntarily zap a giant hunk of the rock across the roof.

The rock, unfortunately, headed straight for Duck. "Mommy!" He quacked away, making the rock hit the wall behind him and burst into pieces. Again unfortunately, he didn't bother to calculate where he was quacking _to_ in his panic and landed on Haven, making her drop the jar off the roof.

The jar fell to the ground and broke in pieces, releasing all the magic. The magic flowed back up to where it started from—the roof of the tower. It surrounded everyone until all they saw was a burst of bright white light (I don't even know if the rhyme was intended that time) until the whole world went black…


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Kelly lay asleep on the roof of a building…but it wasn't the roof of the tower of the castle she was knocked out on… Suddenly, she stirred. Her eyelids fluttered open and she slowly came to. She sat up and looked around. It looked like the roof of the tower while she was distorted… "Was it all just a dream?" She slowly and breathlessly stood up. Then her vision cleared up. She looked around again and realized that the "roof" wasn't even for a building at all! The floor of it had holes like a bridge floor… She slowly backed away as she looked down at the magnificent white gown she was wearing. Before she knew it, her foot backed onto air. She almost fell off the suspension bridge but caught herself. Wait, it _was _a suspension bridge? What happened? She looked around again. Then the memories just before the explosion came back to mind: the magic blast must have pulled them all back to Acmetropolis! She grabbed onto a post and looked out at the city lights and traffic below her. "MOM! DAD!"

Ryan snapped up. "Kelly?" He looked around. He was on top of a building, too. "What happened? KELLY!"

Kelly heard that in the distance, as the wind carried her brother's voice to her and began to blow back her flowing dress and ears. "RYAN! Oh, gotta think of a spell…_My family now is separated, take my voice to them so we won't be agitated!_" Not the best grammar, but it was still a decent spell. She zapped herself. "Guys!"

Sarah, Michael, Tech, and Sophie all woke up.

"What happened?" Sarah asked.

"Kelly, where are you?" Tech asked. He looked around. "And where am I?"

Sophie looked around. "Kelly? Is that you? What was that explosion?"

Michael looked at the city below him. "OK, what's going on?"

"I don't know anything," Kelly told all of them, "I think that magic explosion on the castle tower zapped us back to Acmetropolis in different locations. The question is, why? And what happened that made that happen? And where are the others?"

"OK, too many questions!" said Ryan.

"Ryan's right, too many questions. I guess the real question we need to answer is…" Suddenly, a bolt of energy came at her. She backed up a few feet, but it still hit the bridge floor and made it break in half, knocking her backward. She grabbed onto the floor of the bridge, placing her fingers through the holes, but as the fragment of the bridge floor broke from everything but the restraints, she started to fall with nothing but her grip on the bridge to hold her up. "…is HOW DO I GET OFF THIS BRIDGE?"

Before her family could figure out what had happened and try to find out where she was to come help her, a guy in a hooded cloak came down, riding on a broom. "Hello, little Halfling. I suppose you don't know who I am."

Kelly stared at him fearfully.

He jumped off the broom and landed on his feet on the breaking fragment of the bridge, putting his weight on it and making it start breaking the part Kelly was holding on to. For some reason, he didn't start falling. "Name's Oberon. And I hope you enjoy the view on this bridge because it's the last thing you'll ever see."

Kelly just kept looking at him, too scared to say anything.

Meanwhile, Ryan was waiting for Kelly's response to his incessant calls. "KELLY! KELLY! WHERE ARE YOU? KELLY! Oh, boy…" Before he could cast a spell to find his sister, the wind picked up. He turned around and saw a dirty blonde woman materialize behind him.

She looked at her hands. She smiled. "My power's back…" She looked at him and stopped smiling. "Halfling…"

Ryan started to back up. "Who are you?"

"Zenith. And I believe this is…" She looked around. "This isn't my land."

"No, it's Acmetropolis. And I…" Ryan jumped off the building and landed on an awning. "And he sticks the landing! I'm glad I was aiming for—" Suddenly, the awning started breaking. "Uh oh." He fell off and landed on the sidewalk. "Ow." He got up.

Arielle ran up to him. "We're in Acmetropolis, aren't we?"

"I'd have to say yes. And now someone named Zenith is up there—"

"WHAT? Zenith is here? She's supposed to be a cat in the Acme Tropics!"

"What? What happened?"

"She was the queen of Anasala just before my predecessor. She abused her power of the throne and was suspended by the Council. If she's here…the jar breaking. Haven must have released everyone currently in punishment!"

"Oh, boy… We have to get everyone here!" Ryan called them all and in a few minutes, everyone but Amanda, Joy, Haven, and Kelly was collected on the street. "So who all are we dealing with?"

"Well, Zenith for one. She was named the queen and abused her power in various ways and was banned by the Council to this realm as a cat in the Acme Tropics. And Mars we all know. And then there's Sloane, who killed a Council member in cold blood and tried to kill me with her own mother's sword."

"Huh?" asked Nadine.

"Sloane Nimbus," Daniella explained, "Her mother was a Light Guardian."

Arielle nodded. "And Temperance, who, despite her name, had a short temper."

"She was the Seer in the Coven before Joy came along," said Eric, "Went berserk with a vision one day and killed 5 people with her bare hands."

"And Ajax," Arielle continued, "He was awful. Daring, like his name means. He was a Werewolf, so half the stuff he did happened under the light of full moon and he was pardoned for all that. But in the sunlight, he raped 3 girls, beat up 2 more, and then murdered 5 Warlocks, 4 Witches, 7 mortals, and an iguana." Everyone looked at her. "It is a _LONG_ story!"

"And then, of course, Haven," Shaya added.

Arielle sighed, sorrowfully. "Right."

"And Eronor and Orthane," added Wendy, panicking.

"They're not gonna escape, trust me. Even if they got their power back, they're not gonna get out of containment."

"Wait!" said Penelope, "Ajax wasn't the worst. And neither were Eronor and Orthane. What about Oberon?"

"Right! The revolutionist. The guy led a revolt against Eronor bidding thousands of lives in return."

Wendy's eyes widened. "This happened _before_ we left?"

"Just before."

"How come we didn't hear about this?"

"The Light Guardians, especially your parents, were informed, but they weren't allowed to tell anyone, even you. Oberon did not only that, but he worked undercover for several other evildoers that have died since then: the Order of Black Snakes, Graham the Goblin and his friends, army upon army of Necromancers. And every time one died, he took their power. I'm surprised we were able to contain that much power for so long. Whether he'll come back or the people he took power from, I don't know, but we can't let him loose in the city."

Lexi listened carefully and gasped. "I think we're too late for that. He's got Kelly!"

_Meanwhile…_

_At the bridge…_

Austin was walking along the streets. He came up to the bridge and heard something. It sounded like a girl screaming. He looked up at the second level and saw Kelly still hanging onto the breaking bridge for dear life. But she didn't have a lot of time left. The supports were breaking! Austin raced over to one of the bridge columns and ran up the ramp. When he came to the column, he put his foot on the wall of it and kicked off to make a somersault through the air. Before losing his inertia, he hit the wall of the nearest building and kicked off it as fast as possible. As soon as he got near the bridge's second level, he grabbed onto the sewer-grate-styled floor of the bridge and swung up onto it.

Kelly saw all this. "Impressive." The bridge started breaking again. "Care to top it?"

Austin raced over there. "Why didn't you zap yourself off?"

"I couldn't think of a spell! I'm panicking!"

Austin kept running to her, but was zapped back by a bolt of energy before he could get close.

Oberon was on top of the column nearest Kelly. "Back off, Wolfe!" He jumped up onto the suspension and looked around.

Austin got up and ran for Kelly again but was bounced back by an invisible field.

"Shield spell, buddy. Can't get to your girl now."

Kelly looked at both men in turn, fearfully, and then looked down at the water 50 stories below her.

"Don't look down!" Austin commanded her.

"You know, usually when people say 'don't look down,' it makes you wanna look down!"

"Well, close your eyes!"

Kelly nodded and obeyed. But even with her eyes closed, she was seeing something…

_Zenith fell on the sidewalk. She looked back up at Tech and kicked him, knocking him backwards into a tree. He started trying to get up, but couldn't move. Zenith glared at Sophie and zapped her back into the street. As she slowly started to get up, a car came at her…_

_"SOPHIE!"_

Kelly's eyes snapped open. She looked at Austin. "Forget about me! Go find my family and help them!"

Austin started to say something, but the bridge creaked again. "I'm not gonna leave you!"

"I'll be fine! I'm a Witch! I'll get myself out of this! Just go!"

Austin nodded and got up and ran off.

Kelly closed her eyes again.

Oberon jumped onto the bridge fragment, shocking Kelly and making her open her eyes again to look at him. "You'll get off this ride when you're dead."

Kelly just looked at him… She got up her courage and let go of the bridge with one hand, zapping him with her now free hand and knocking him back. She rolled over and started climbing up the halfway-attached bridge fragment to get back on the bridge and run off.

Oberon got up and jumped over there, grabbing her by the throat but not lifting her from the bridge. "Just for that, I'm gonna kill you a little bit more than usual."

Kelly looked at him again, whimpering.

Ryan looked into an alleyway. Nothing. "All clear over here."

Saffron looked into an alleyway across the road from him. "Here, too."

Ryan picked up a walkie-talkie. "Clear on the north side of West Street."

Michael came up behind his brother and picked up his own walkie-talkie. "Rye, I'm not gonna tell you again: I'm right next to you."

Ryan looked at him. "Right, sorry." He picked up his walkie-talkie again. "Over."

Michael glared at him. "Can I borrow that for a second?"

"Sure." Ryan handed it to him.

Michael hit him in the head with it.

Ryan grabbed his head. "OW!"

The 2 started clawing at each other.

Sophie came up and separated her sons.

"You know," Sarah said, "It would actually help us stop fighting if we knew where these guys were!"

Suddenly, dark storm clouds began brewing overhead. The clouds gathered together and zoomed down to earth, slowly turning into a person.

"That Ajax?" Lucy asked Arielle. She nodded. "Of course."

Ajax got up. He looked around… He spread his hands out. The ground before him flew up and zoomed at them.

Everyone was able to dodge them except Brad, who flew backwards…right into Haven. He forced out a nervous smile. "Hey, sis…"

Haven growled and kicked him, knocking him backwards into a brick wall.

Jupiter saw this. She prepared to zap Haven, but took a step back and walked right into Mars. She gasped and whirled around. "Mars!"

"Here's a word I think you'll be familiar with: payback."

"Look, about this afternoon…"

"What, how you tortured me for 2 hours straight to break my spell?"

"I kicked you twice! That's it! Granted, I did kick you pretty hard both times, but it's nothing compared to what you did to me. What you took from me…"

"What? Parenthood?"

Jupiter gasped. Did he know?

"Your folks had it coming."

Oh. He was talking about _her_ parents. "No, they didn't. You did. You deserved everything the Council gave you."

"No, I didn't. You did. And you're about to get it."

Jupiter started to run and ran into a blonde woman. "You must be Temperance. Hi." She glared at her. "Bye." She started to run off. Temperance zapped her and she flew forward into a brownish-brunette girl. "And you must be Sloane."

Sloane smiled. "Good guess." She backhanded her, sending her flying back into a tree and knocking her out.

Zenith came up from the roof of a nearby building. She was at least 25 stories up, but it didn't stop her. She jumped off the building and landed next to Sloane. She held up her hands and rapidly took them down to her hips, making the earth shake and crack beneath her feet. The effects didn't last long, but did make the major part of a power line break off and start falling towards Jupiter.

Slam noticed the problem and went into spin cycle to grab her and take her out of the way.

The power line hit the ground where Jupiter had been lying. If it weren't for Slam, she would've been electrocuted.

Slam let Jupiter down.

She looked at him and smiled. "Thanks."

Slam nodded.

"I hope Kelly's OK in all this," said Tech.

"Kelly can handle herself," Sophie assured her husband, "Right now, we have to deal with these crazies."

Austin then came up and saw Ajax, Mars, Haven, Temperance, Sloane, and Zenith. He realized why Kelly had sent him down there and raced up to them. When Mars prepared to zap Jupiter, he came up and kicked him in the legs, knocking him over. When Mars started to get up, he jump up and did a spin-kick, knocking him down the street and then landing on his feet.

Ryan saw all this. "You have gotta show me how to do that!"

The group started fighting, every magic one using magic and every mutant using their powers (so Austin was pretty much alone, but he did keep doing some pretty cool moves).

Austin finally got back-to-back with Rev. "Rev, you're pretty fast, right?"

"Well-they-didn't-call-me-the-speed-demon-of-Acmetropolis-for-nothing-right?"

"Right. Well, you have to go find Kelly and get her back here fast! She's in some serious trouble."

Rev sighed. "Isn't-she-always?" He sped off. He jumped up and started flying off. When he was far enough out of the way of the fight, his eyes started glowing red. "Alright-Kelly-let's-see-where-you-are-just-need-a-few-seconds-to-calculate-it-with-my-GPS-AHA! Got-it! The-North-Bridge!" He flew off for the bridge.

Kelly finally grabbed Oberon's wrist and squeezed it. Oberon let go of her throat and kicked her in the face. She, in response, grabbed his leg and yanked it. He fell onto the breaking bridge fragment, but his spell still held and he didn't fall. She came up a few more steps and kneed him in the groin. While he was recovering from that blow, his spell broke and he started falling. Halfway down, he grabbed onto the bridge floor. He looked up and saw Kelly continuing to climb up. He started after her. He was moving faster than she was and eventually caught up with her. The bridge creaked again. Neither seemed to notice the supports starting to crack. While Kelly was preparing to start climbing again, Oberon grabbed her leg. She kicked him in the face with the other foot. She started climbing faster.

Rev came in about then. He looked at Kelly and saw her fighting off a blondish-brunette Warlock and the bridge breaking under them. He gasped. "Kelly!" He raced over there. As soon as he got close to her, though, he was bounced away by an invisible field of energy. "What? Maybe-this-time-this-time-this-this-this-OW!" He finally got hit with a bolt of blue lightning and bounced back with a bent beak. "Ow…I hate magic." He shook his head rapidly, straightening his beak out.

Kelly sensed all the magical activity in her vicinity and turned around to see Rev trying to break Oberon's field spell. "Rev!"

Rev looked at her. "Hey-Kelly! Boy-are-you-in-a-pickle."

Kelly scoffed and kicked Oberon again, harder this time. "You're telling me." The bridge creaked again and one of the 5 support bars broke. Kelly screamed as the bridge fell farther down and farther to the right, making her lose her grip on the bridge and start falling. She grabbed the bridge floor just as she past Oberon. When he started to kick her, she grabbed his foot and pushed his knee into his groin. She started climbing again.

Oberon glared at her. "Quit doing that!"

"You-go-girl!"

Kelly glared at her uncle.

"Sorry."

She kept climbing while Oberon recovered from that hit, trying to think of a spell at the same time. When Oberon started climbing after her again, she got it, remembering her magic block: "_Arseonica Morcressias!_" She zapped him and he…turned into a pineapple. "Thank you, magic block. Stupid panicking." She kept climbing, but another support started broke. "REV!"

"I'm-coming!" Rev started flying at her, but the shield was still up.

Kelly knew she wasn't getting off the bridge until Rev could get to her. She turned over again and held out her hand, starting to push a shield of her own onto the field to break it. She kept pushing. The third support bar kept breaking. She had to break the field, her family was in danger! Finally she saw her silver energy cracking the royal blue energy and fragmenting Oberon's shield. Rev was thrown back a ways, but Kelly smiled upon realizing that she'd succeeded. She'd actually cast a major spell correctly after getting her power premature! She wasn't a failure. "I'm not a failure. I'm a Witch. An actual Witch. A mutant, Coyote anthro, half-blood, premature W—" The next support broke. She screamed as the bridge started breaking again. "REV!"

Rev zoomed back up and saw the 2 final supports snapping. "KELLY!" He sped over to her.

Kelly looked up. The fourth support snapped and then finally the last one. Before she could fall, though, she felt herself…flying? She opened her eyes and saw the waters pass beneath her. She looked at Rev and smiled. "Thanks."

"No-problem-but-you-so-owe-me-I-mean-not-in-an-IOU-sort-of-way-since-we're-technically-blood-but-I-just-saved-your-life-and-by-the-International-Superhero/Supervillain-Rules-I'd-say-that-you—"

"Rev, forgive me for stealing a line, but watch where you're talking!"

Rev looked up and saw that they were headed for a giant building. He zoomed up and headed back for the street the gang was still fighting on.

Kelly shook herself off. "Please, do not flip me like that again."

"And-I-repeat: Sorry." He kept flying. Finally, they landed by a tree and rejoined the fight.

Arielle saw Kelly coming. "Kelly! How'd you get away from Oberon?"

"Magic block came in handy. I turned him into a pineapple."

"Wow…" Sophie said.

Kelly smiled and turned back to Austin. "So now you're helping instead of warning?"

"Sometimes I come in handy."

Kelly smiled again and prepared to fight.

The fight restarted.

Arielle cornered Haven. "Haven, I know you feel like I betrayed you, but you have to understand that—"

"What? You meant it for the best? You were thinking of me? No, you weren't. If you were, you would've given it to me, you would've made me your alternate, you wouldn't have done something so stupid and heartless as how you betrayed me!"

"That's not what happened! If either of us is heartless, it's you. You weren't like this until you got your hands on that dark magic. You were never supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be different. If you had stayed away from the dungeon, maybe you would have the throne."

Haven scoffed. "Like I'm supposed to believe that."

Arielle shook her head. "No, I guess you're not. Well, believe this: I want my sister back."

Haven stopped smiling entirely. "Huh?"

Arielle jumped on her and pinned her to the ground behind the tree. She held out one hand at the bad guys and started strangling Haven with the other.

Haven closed her eyes, struggling against her. Finally, she opened her eyes to reveal that her eyes were entirely blood red. Before she could fight back again, a dark energy flowed back through her and into Arielle.

Arielle fought off the magic's force and kept holding out her hand at the bad guys. Finally, the dark energy flowed out of her and ran right into Ajax, Temperance, and Sloane. Haven was cleansed, Oberon was a pineapple, and Ajax and Temperance and Sloane were unconscious and not likely to wake up soon. That just left Zenith and Mars.

Haven got up. "Arielle…"

"It's OK, Haven. It wasn't you."

Haven almost starting crying. "It was me. That was the problem. You're my sister, I was never supposed to…" After this, she did start crying. Arielle took her into her arms to comfort her.

While everyone was watching this, Penelope, Saffron, and Eric zapped Zenith and their combined spell knocked her out.

"And everything works out," said Sarah happily.

"Not for me, it doesn't," Jupiter sighed.

"Oh, boo-hoo," said Mars, "You know, Witches like you have a name: crybabies!"

Kelly growled and stormed over to him. "You know what? Jupiter is fine. The problem is you! You're self-centered, egotistic, conceited, blood-thirsty, unthinking, brainless, thoughtless, insensitive, cares-for-no-one-but-himself-and-bloodshed, and, on top of all of that, a great, big, idiotic jerk!"

"Sticks and stones, kid. What are _you_ gonna do about it?"

Kelly groaned. "You wanna what I'm gonna do about it? I'll show you what I'm gonna do about it." She snapped her fingers in his face and started waving her finger. "_Frekensidesin, Kor Frish, Zura la KAM!_" A puff of smoke emerged around him and he turned back into a black-feathered crow.

Daniella's eyes widened. How'd she swing that?

Mars looked at himself. "Oh, not again!"

Wendy looked at her niece. "And yet you can't zap up anything else but pineapples?"

Kelly smiled at her.

Haven forced out a smile, making Arielle smile.

Kelly turned around to look at Austin. He was gone again. She, instead, smiled at Jupiter, who smiled back.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

By midnight, the group was back in Anasala, where the sun was rising.

Kelly was fixing her dress. On the bridge, it had been torn in places. And she wasn't in too good shape herself either. Her neck was sore from where Oberon had gripped it and she had a bruised nose from where he kicked it.

But all-in-all, everyone was mainly OK. The bad guys hadn't been able to do any real damage before the gang knocked them out for the transfer back through the portal.

Daniella approached Arielle, who was still comforting Haven while Brad and Shaya nursed everyone's battle wounds. "By the way, what happened when the jar broke that made all that happen?"

Arielle sighed. "I guess the stress on the barrier between worlds from Kelly and Ryan's portal opening spell was a little too overexerted when the jar broke and released all that magic, so it had to escape into that world, where the magic level is somewhat reduced. Since the dark magic of the sorcerers was released, the sorcerers were released and refueled, thus resulting in our great, big battle, amongst which Kelly broke her and her brother's magic block by using it to work for her in battle before casting such a serious actual spell as she did for the good of not only herself but her family."

Kelly smiled at her siblings and parents. They smiled back. She suddenly stopped smiling. "Wait a minute. You're telling us that hell broke loose in Acmetropolis because we opened the portal to it for the good of Acmetropolis?"

"Ironic, isn't it?" Arielle asked. Kelly nodded. "And it's the exact reason the Council wants to talk to you after the coronation."

Kelly sighed. "You know what? This all happened because of the coronation. It happened because of us."

"Kelly, that's not entirely true—" Sophie started.

"Technically, it is. Haven wouldn't have been in the castle dungeon if it weren't for Arielle's coronation, so she wouldn't have become evil. And she wouldn't have tried to kill us if it weren't for our coronation."

"And just so you know," Ryan added, "I'm starting to rethink _my_ position in this whole thing."

Kelly scoffed at her brother. "I can understand you backing out. But as for me…I don't know. Ryan didn't need to be here in the first place, but if I hadn't come here, Haven wouldn't have tried to kill anybody, the portal wouldn't have messed up the barriers between worlds because of our spell, and Acmetropolis wouldn't have been put in danger by evil Witches!"

"And Warlocks!" Ryan added.

"Whatever! My point is—"

"That you shouldn't be taking the throne?" asked Jupiter.

"Exactly. I mean, I fit the qualifications based on the rules, but I don't exactly fit the qualifications based on the…social world here."

"You know, the way I see it…" Nadine thought out loud, "…the real problem is that stupid marital law. I mean, in our world, in 1700's-2000's, women were actually forced to marry so they could have the throne. And here they're not allowed to? We don't have control over those kinds of things! Haven got lucky to fit every qualification and they still passed her over anyway, so it's not like they strictly paying attention to that law. Aunt Danni, Aunt Wend, and Aunt So should've taken the throne in the first place like they were supposed to."

"Or, for that matter, if there really is more than one throne up for grabs after all these single reigns, Arielle should be allowed to marry _and _share the throne with Haven _and_ Brad. And even Shaya." _DING!_ "That's it."

"What?"

"That's the answer to our problems. If the Council abolishes…or repeals…or whatever…the marital law, than Arielle can marry her guy _and_ keep the throne _and _Haven can have the throne like she should have had in the first place _and_ Brad and Haven would get to quit their awful jobs! And then Ryan can skip the throne and I can be the alternate so that I still come close!"

Daniella sighed. "Kelly, I hate to break to you, but the Council would never agree to that…even if that is the smartest idea you've ever come up with."

"But we agree it is a good idea, right?" Daniella nodded. "Well, why wouldn't they?"

"This all started because of conspiracy in the royal family," Wendy explained, "One king's wife, 500 human years ago, let the power go to her head and tried to stab her husband in his sleep so that she wouldn't have to share the throne, or give it up to any of her children like a human monarchy. Granted, this isn't a monarchy, but it's not a democracy either. The point is, the guard caught her and punished her before she could kill him and the Council swore they wouldn't risk another royal conspiracy. So they passed the virginity law…which we forgot about entirely when we agreed to take the throne while Arielle thought we were still celibate."

Sarah looked at them. "So they passed a law because of royal conspiracy, to avoid royal conspiracy, and it led to an even worse royal conspiracy?"

Wendy thought about that. "Good point. Arielle, maybe you should talk to them."

Arielle nodded and zapped herself to the Council.

_3 days later…_

Arielle, wearing a golden tiara, placed a silver tiara in Haven's hair.

Haven smiled at her sister as Brad and Shaya followed their example. She finally got what she had always wanted.

Kelly stood on the side, wearing her white gown again.

Ryan approached her and put his arm around her. "Looks like you finally did something right."

Kelly smiled. "And the 2 of us finally broke our magic blocks."

Daniella was hitting some buttons on her wand. She approached the 2 and waved her wand at them. She smiled. "And from the looks of it, became the most powerful Witch and most powerful Warlock in the tower."

Kelly smiled. "So everything works out."

"Not quite!" Mars flew up to them and landed on her shoulder. "What about me? I spent 5 years trying to convince all of you Witches—and Warlocks—that no good could come from these stupid mortals—I did it for the right reasons—and you do _THIS_ to me? I mean, sure I killed 4 people and tortured countless others, but I was just trying to—" Kelly raised her zapping finger. "I'm going." He flew off.

Kelly smiled.

Jupiter came up to them. "He kind of deserved that."

Kelly looked at her friend.

"We'll leave you 2 alone," Daniella said, taking the group away from Kelly and Jupiter as the band started playing (not quite as loud this time).

Jupiter smiled at Kelly. "So the bad guys are defeated, the royal family is safe, you become the permanent princess of Anasala, your brother is free from his duties here which he so dreaded, you and your brother are the most powerful in your family, and you finally conquered your magic block and mastered the spell I taught you."

"And you have broken your delirium and earned the right to go back to Acmetropolis in a few years to look for your kid."

Jupiter smiled and nodded. "I miss him so much. I absolutely have to see him. I don't think I can wait so long."

"So, let me get this straight: you beat up your tormentor, saved my life, helped us save Acmetropolis, and have spent a supposed 50 years of insanity locked away in a single hallway in the castle and you can't survive a few more Anasalan decades under constant care of the castle as the lady-in-waiting with me, the psychic princess, stopping by every so often to check on you?"

"Kelly, I'm 210 years old and getting more lost by the decade with_out_ the spell. I don't think you're gonna top that."

Kelly sighed. "Fine. Let me try this: I don't need to use my powers to know that you're gonna find him and that he's gonna be safe and happy and ready to meet you when you do. And if you get stuck, you'll be able to find me for help along the way. You know you can trust me."

Jupiter smiled. "Of course. My only friend for 50 years and I can't trust her?" She scoffed. "Please. She helped me…she saved me."

"I wouldn't say 'saved' exactly—"

"You did."

Kelly smiled. "You're welcome?"

Jupiter smiled back. "Thank you."

Kelly half-smiled. "So I guess this is goodbye for now."

Jupiter nodded, sadly.

The 2 hugged.

Kelly closed her eyes as she hugged Jupiter. "Good luck finding your son."

Jupiter closed her eyes, too. "I don't believe in luck."

"Yeah, I don't either, but the phrase sort of fit."

Jupiter smiled and started giggling.

Kelly copied these actions.

The 2 finally split up and opened their eyes, laughing.

Kelly smiled. "See you soon, I hope."

Jupiter nodded. "Yeah. Soon."

Kelly nodded and ran off to meet her family as they prepared to open the portal.

Jupiter stared after her. "Farewell, Kelly Coyote. A good friend for a while. I'm guessing you're always a good friend. To everyone." The group opened the portal. "I hope I'll see you again soon…" She stopped smiling entirely and gasped. "…so I can warn you about what's gonna happen." Her eyes widened. "I didn't tell her… Kelly!" She ran after her. But by the time she made it over there, they were all gone and the portal was closed. She sighed. "I didn't tell her I'm just like her." She sighed. "Exactly like her…" She walked off.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

Yay, I finished another one! And this one was the first Loonakids story I've written that exceeded 8 chapters! Sure makes up for those blocked stories I had to cut short in season one. Anyway, don't worry, Jupiter will come back, just probably not in this season or even in Loonakids but in Loonatics Extreme. But she will come back, I can tell you/promise you that! And the next story is pretty much a direct follow-up for this story, so I'll try to post it ASAP. And there were several major points in this story that will be important in later stories, especially in Loonatics Extreme, so if you don't wanna read the recap later you may have to go back and reread it if you missed anything. And yay! Baby Rebekka Runner was finally born! Since I had made so many boys by accident the first time around, I tried to even the playing field with the second batch of the girls' kids and I guess I made too many girls since I had such good names (but boy, do Rev and Danni tend to stick to simple names). The problem with having so many girls is that they're gonna be teenagers later on and there's just enough in this batch for every kid to get coupled, but to couple every kid in this new batch I will have to come up with a LOT of extra OC's. It's gonna take some work. I mean, I've already made up couples for the kids' kids! And yes, the story will get that far! Oh boy...


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